Medieval Pilgrim Signs and Ampullae

This paper compares Chaucer's subtle satiric attitude toward pilgrimage and relics in the Canterbury Tales with the more overtly polemical tone of Erasmus's yet more polemical account.  I suggest that the name of the Tabard Inn, from which the pilgrims set off on their trip, is an allusion to one of the most famous of Becket's relics.

Opening lines:
"The journeys undertaken by medieval pilgrims leave their trail in the metal souvenirs subsequently found in archaeological excavations or as casual finds. The distribution patterns show us the favoured shrines often far from home, and the social and economic implications of these attractions. The patterns themselves require records of find spots and types to be systematically made, the kind of data-base being developed at the Art History department of the Radboud University in Nijmegen (the Netherlands). The data base, named 'Kunera', after a saint venerated in Rhenen, registers individual and groups of finds of badges and flasks in a Geographical Information System (http://www.kunera.nl). The utility of this approach will be illustrated by considering a case study focussed on the pilgrimage site of 's-Hertogenbosch in Brabant."

The paper is dedicated to the collection of ampullae preserved in the treasury of the basilica in Monza and endeavors to shed light on the circumstances surrounding their donation. Traditionally, it is held that these little reliquaries containing sacred oils from Jerusalem were a gift of pope Gregory the Great sent to the Lombard queen Theodelinda on occasion of the Catholic baptism of her son, in 603. As heir of the throne, his baptism was important as it effectively assured the conversion of the previously Arian Lombards to Catholicism. Through the study of the political situation at that time, the religion and the culture of the Lombard court and the analysis of the relic policy of the pope, this essay revises this tradition and tries to draw a plausible historical background for a new hypothesis. Collecting relics was an important part of the early medieval aristocratic evergetism since such objects were deemed to be the religious bulwark of the kingdom. Thus, as in the case of Saint Helen, the role of the Queen was to found churches and monasteries and endow them with relics in order to guarantee the protection and the prosperity of the kingdom. However, an entire collection of relics from Jerusalem does not fit into the relic policy of the pope. The latter tended to distribute rather Roman contact relics in quite a limited number. Thus, in all likelihood, Theodelinda’s foundation of the royal basilica went hand in hand with an endowment of relics, brought to Monza by the pilgrims from Holy Land or by special envoys, as recorded in the case of the Merovingian Queen Radegund.

The Sick Bow in the Church: Medical Care and Surgery in the Village of Oplinter / Brabant, Belgium (14th-early 16th century).

One of the most curious medieval rural parish churches in the former duchy of Brabant is the church of St Genoveva in Oplinter, a village near the town of Tienen (Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant). From the early 14th century onwards, the Romanesque church was replaced by a new Gothic building, with some unusual features for a rural parish church: it is the only medieval hall-church in Brabant, and has two beautiful decorated side porches from the middle of the 14th century. This new construction is closely related to the reputation that Oplinter enjoyed since at least ca. 1300 as a pilgrimage site for sick people who hoped to obtain healing of  the dreadful disease of ergotism. This disease, at that time known as St-Anthony fire, holy fire, or Saint Genoveva fire, was caused by eating cereals infected with mother corn, a poisonous parasitic fungus. The disease particularly struck during the autumn months, after the grain harvest. Patients suffered from severe spasms accompanied by mental disorders, or gangrene, in which the extremities of the affected limbs turn black and die. The two most important healing saints were St Anthony Abbot and St Genoveva (ca. 422-c. 500-510), the patron saint of Paris: her reputation as a healing saint against ergotism started in 1129, when her miraculous intervention put an end to a major epidemic which then ravaged Paris and the whole of northern France.
A big difference with leprosy was that ergotism was not transmitted by infection. That is why victims were not thrown out of the community and confined to a leprosy asylum, but treated within the community: in a hospital or, as in Oplinter, even in the church itself, both in the middle of the village. Already in the 14th century sick people were cared for in sick beds within the church and sometimes were even buried in the church building. These sick beds stood in two annexes on either side of the church tower, each with two floors. These annexes are described in 1515 as 'houses', each having three rooms. The southern annex is an integral part of the earliest construction campaign of the new church (early 14th century). This means that this annex, with its clearly non-religious function, was part of the architectural concept from the very beginning. The northern annex was added at the beginning of the 15th century.
In addition to these six 'sick rooms' in the church, patients were also cared for in a small hospital, which was managed by the church wardens, and was located behind the church, on the site of the current presbytery. We do not know how many beds the hospital and the six rooms in the church counted. A rare account dating from 1527 shows that during each autumn month six to eight patients, both men and women, were cared for in the hospital. The hospital had its own brewing installation. Officially, the supervision of the medical care in Oplinter was entrusted to the hospital governess, who was appointed by the village lord. But a recently discovered judgment from 1515 shows that she had to endure the competition of a surgeon. The document includes a list of names that goes back to about 1450, containing as many men as women. Sometimes a parent passed on his knowledge to his child, as was the case with Catharina (+ ca. 1511), who practiced surgery for more than thirty years and involved her daughter Stevenijne from an early age. When, at the death of Catharina, the village lord nevertheless appointed another woman as hospital governess, this led to fierce protest within the village community because Stevenijne could boast of years of expertise. Catharina and Stevenijne not only treated ergotism, but also all kinds of other diseases and ailments 'such as bad legs, breasts and other matters of surgery'. The repeated use of the term 'surgery' seems to indicate that the Oplinter surgeons, including the women among them, amputated patients who suffered from gangrene. The reputation of these skilled village surgeons was a major attraction for sick pilgrims from a vast surrounding area. The case of Oplinter offers interesting perspectives for further research into local medicine care in late medieval and early modern rural pilgrimage sites.

The 'Holy Women' in the Liturgy and Art of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Twelfth Century Jerusalem.
Forthcoming in: The Uses of the Bible in Crusader Sources, ed. E. Lapina and N. Morton (Brill, 2017)

Examines the liturgical allusions to, and visual depictions of the spice-bearing women - also known as the Holy Women or the Three Marys - in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in twelfth century Jerusalem.  The examination of the liturgy of the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem draws its evidence from the breviary (ordinal) of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a manuscript of the early thirteenth century describing the twelfth century offices and festivities. This manuscript is known as the Barletta ordinal, and it is examined in conjunction with similar texts from Jerusalem.  Focus is placed on the Easter liturgy with its several mentions of the special sacrificial role of the Holy Women as the first pilgrims to the sepulchre, and first witnesses of the Resurrection. The theme of the 'Visit to the Sepulchre' (Visitatio Sepulchri) seems to have gained  further prominence as it was chosen by the early Latin patriarchs of Jerusalem as their signum, and was depicted on artefacts such as pilgrims' flasks. The liturgical choices, as well as the artistic ones are meaningful as they highlight a biblical theme possibly of special import for the first crusaders in their new capital city. This theme  was replaced shortly after with the non-biblical scene of the Anastasis type, a meaningful change in itself. The paper also argues for continuity in the significance accorded to the theme of the Holy Women in the liturgy and artefacts from pre-crusade times in Jerusalem. The article will include illustrations.

In between the wide range of souvenirs available to the medieval pilgrim, the ampullae or small lead and/or pewter flasks form a special group. As part of our current research at the Radboud University at Nijmegen, Katja Boertjes is writing her Ph.D. thesis on the medieval ampullae in relation to quite similar late antique and early Christian pilgrim souvenirs in the form of metal or ceramic ampullae. 1 Separate from the ampullae with Christian iconography, there exists a rather large group of these containers decorated with heraldic imaginary which are quite intriguing and/ up till now, have largely been considered to be unidentifiable. In this essay I will put forward a possible solution and identification for a cluster of these heraldic ampullae. Thus far, there have no late medieval pewter or lead pilgrim ampullae come down to us from other than archaeological contexts; none seem to have survied in church treasuries, in statues or reliquaries or otherwise historic collections. Excavated examples however are known from all over the Western world. These pilgrim ampullae are to be divided into three main categories: those with representations of or references to saints and shrines, those ampullae which are completely blank, and those ampullae adorned with heraldic motifs.

Die räumliche Beziehung zwischen dem Fundort eines Objektes und seinem Herstellungs- oder Emissionsort verrät viel über den Wert, den es für seinen Besitzer hatte – gerade bei Gegenständen mit einem ideellen oder religiösen Wert. Man kann diesen Zusammenhang wohl auf diese Formel reduzieren: Je größer die Entfernung zwischen der ursprünglichen Emissionsstelle und dem Fundort ist, desto größer war auch der Wert des Objektes in den Augen seines Besitzers. Das bedeutet weiterhin: Je mehr Fundstücke eines Herkunftsortes in einer Distanz angetroffen werden, die den Radius alltäglicher Mobilität seiner Bewohner deutlich übersteigt, umso beliebter war das Objekt. Handelt es sich dabei um ‚Souvenirs‘, dann zeigen sie den Grad der Beliebtheit des Herkunftsortes an.
Die insbesondere im Spätmittelalter an vielen Wallfahrtsorten ausgegebenen Pilgerzeichen waren zweifelsohne Objekte, die vor allem einen ideellen Wert im Sinne solcher Souvenirs besaßen – daher besteht für Gnadenorte eine direkte Proportionalität zwischen der Größe des Verbreitungsraume ihrer Pilgerzeichen und ihrer Popularität. Die folgenden Ausführungen illustrieren dies am Beispiel der Pilgerzeichen zwei der bedeutendsten spätmittelalterlichen Wallfahrtszentren im deutschsprachigen Raum – Aachen und Köln.

Through a discussion of the iconography of Armenian coins and an attempt to explain the mistaken identity of the principal figure on the previously incorrectly called "Coronation drams" of King Levon I of Cilician Armenia, which in fact had already been rejected in an earlier article.  Rather than Christ crowning the king as was supposed by analogy to certain Byzantine issues, the figure was clearly the Virgin in an orante pose, interceding between King Levon and her son Christ.  The suggestion is made that this iconography might have been the sources for the Virgin Misericorde in Armenian manuscript illuminations of the later thirteenth century and perhaps even of the Italian variety of the scene about the same time.

Ampullae are devotonal objects and a type of travel art that were flled with sacred contents that had ceremoniously come into contact with a relic associated with Christan pilgrimage and cult sites around the ancient Mediterranean. Saints, evangelists, crucifxes, and biblical stories frequently appear on fasks embellished with images, lending them amuletc propertes which in turn made them highly sought-afer. Questons surrounding the imagery, producton, and distributon of ampullae from Asia Minor have proven to be troubling for scholars. I address these issues by showing that ampullae could be manufactured at producton centers specifc to a cult site or in of-site facilites that may have utlized generalized images to cater to the religious diversity of early Christans. Apart from shop stalls in or near pilgrimage centers, ampullae too could be distributed as gifs or by traveling peddlers. By presentng a range of conceivable methods for the producton and distributon of ampullae, I hope to both enlarge the scope of future studies on Byzantne material culture and to show the importance of conversing with our evidence and recognizing nuance in art and history.

After the dismantling of Becket’s shrine during the Protestant Reformation, the holiness associated with the saint has been diffused in and through material and aural culture. Drawing on the vernacular devotional use of Becket’s relics from the Middle Ages onwards, including ‘Canterbury water’, I argue that songs associated with the saint have been similarly  perceived to have healing, protective and apotropaic capacities. The primary
case study is the interreligious, musical and ritual practices engaged today along the ‘Old Way’ pilgrimage to Canterbury and at the cathedral itself, as imagined, mapped and facilitated by the British Pilgrimage Trust, founded in 2014 by Guy Hayward and Will Parsons. An interdisciplinary art historical and ethnographic approach using participant observation is employed to highlight the integral role of music and object-based ritual praxis in translating perceived pilgrimages of the past into the present. Music, I
argue, can be understood as ‘Canterbury water’ for the 21st century.

The article is an extensive form of the introductory lecture at a session with the title “Local saints – local cult of saints“ of the 32nd Symposium of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Archaeology and Art of the Christian Archaeological Society (Athens 2012).
Aim of the study is to present the material means, practices, signs and symbols that contribute to the emergence of local holy figures. In this respect, pilgrimage and pilgrim mementoes, relics, cult icons and the pictorial narratives of saint lives, are some of the issues discussed in the paper.
The importance and impact of hagiological cults within the local communities is another theme in the scope of this presentation. The hagiological texts, mainly collections of miracles, the development of pilgrimage centers and the economic activities connected with them, were topics that could unfold different aspects of this subject.
Archaeological and textual testimonies in relation with the historical background were used to discuss these issues and to investigate a final general question, namely whether the appearance and development of local cults follows common patterns in each historical period of Byzantium

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This paper focuses on how the coin was used in the Middle Ages: the steps that are part of the process of spending and saving money, as well as the feelings of medieval man in Northern Spain.

Que la moneda se fabrica, contiene unos tipos especiales y se usa es un hecho conocido. El presente trabajo se centra en cómo se usa, esto es, los pasos detallados que forman parte del proceso de gastar y guardar, tanto como los sentimientos de quienes los viven.

Olympos Antik kentinde yapılan kazı çalışmaları sayesinde kentin Erken Bizans dönemine ait çok sayıda yapı belgelenmiştir. 2012 yılında yapılan çalışmalarda kentin kuzeyinde sivil bir konut işleviyle kullanılan bir yapının avlusundaki toprak dolgu içerisinde seramikten yapılmış bir ampulla bulunmuştur. Hamur ve form özellikleri bakımından 6-7. yüzyıllarda üretilen Batı Anadolu tipi ampullalar grubundandır. Kalıpla biçimlendirilmiş iki parçanın birbirine eklenmesiyle oluşturulmuş yassı küresel gövdelidir. Her iki yüzünde kabartma olarak yapılmış figürler bulunmaktadır. Figürlerden ilkinin bir sıpa üzerine binmiş olduğu ve başının çevresindeki nimbusunda yer alan haç kolları nedeniyle İsa’yı betimlediği anlaşılmaktadır. Sahne Kudüs’e Giriş sahnesi olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Ampullanın diğer yüzünde elinde büyük bir haç ve diğer elinde yuvarlak bir kalkan tutan, sakallı bir aziz figürü bulunmaktadır. Figürün ayaklarının altında başını yukarı doğru çevirmiş bir yılan figürü yer alır. Azizin duruşu, kullanılan semboller ve diğer yüzdeki Kudüs’e Giriş sahnesi nedeniyle gösterilen temanın ölüme karşı zafer olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı Olympos’ta bulunmuş olan ampullanın üzerinde yer alan betimlemelerin ikonografisini açıklamaktır.
Abstract
Olympos Ancient city is located in modern Antalya. Many buildings belonging to the Early Byzantine period have been documented in the site. In 2012, a ceramic ampulla was found in earth filling of a courtyard which is a part of building used with secular function in the north of the city. In terms of clay and form, it is belonging to the Asia Minor type ampullae produced in the 6th-7th centuries. It has a flat spherical body made by mold. There are figures made of reliefs on both sides. It is understood that the first of the figures seated on a colt depicts Jesus because of the cross arms in his nimbus around his head. The scene is defined as Entrance to Jerusalem. On the other side of the ampulla, there is a bearded saint holding a large cross and a round shield in his hands. Under his feet there is a snake with twisted body and its head turns upwards. The scene is evaluated to be representing victory against death due to the stance of the saint and symbols used with also the scene of Entrance to Jerusalem on the other side. The aim of this study is to explain the iconography of the ampulla found in Olympos.

Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims examines the history of Hagia Koryphē (in Greek) or Jabal Mūsā (in Arabic), a mountain peak above the Monastery of St Catherine at South Sinai in Egypt, known for centuries as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, as described in Exodus. The book explores the ways in which the landscape of the summit was experienced and transformed using textual criticism, historical analysis, art history, and, for the first time, archaeological interpretation. Beginning in the third century, when the identification with the biblical ‘Mount Sinai’ was established, the narrative extends through to the early twentieth century. Covering the natural environment, the Bedouin and early Christians, the importance of Mount Sinai in Muslim tradition, the cult of St Catherine, pilgrimage, as well as the scholarly, artistic and tourist phenomenon of the nineteenth century, Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims is a comprehensive and complete history of this remarkable place.

https://www.hauspublishing.com/product/mount-sinai/

‘Lucid and original; a veritable feast of interesting stories about Mount Sinai’s extraordinary past.’ - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

‘As a traveller and pilgrim to Sinai on numerous occasions and now a Trustee of the St Catherine's Foundation, I greatly enjoyed George Manginis's Mount Sinai and learnt much from it…The book is a learned and delightful companion to God-trodden Sinai.’ - Richard Chartres, Bishop of London

‘This book is an absolute mine of riches, reflection, and information… would strongly encourage anyone to pay a visit to this remarkable place of history, holiness and tradition. I recommend this book highly.’ - Vincent Nichols, Cardinal of Westminster

‘This book gives an invaluable insight into the evolution over two millennia of Mount Sinai as a sacred site and a place of spiritual quest.’ - H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan

‘George Manginis has trawled archives and published accounts to create the biography of the mountain, telling the story of the devout, the scholars and the tourists who have helped shape its history. His book is likely to stand as the last word on one of the world's most enduring places, unless an angel appears to tell the divine side of the story.’ - Anthony Sattin, author of Young Lawrence

This dissertation describes pilgrimages and pilgrims who traveled from the Croatian coast to Loreto and Assisi in the 18th century. The origin of passengers, their number and organization into groups, the time they spent on the pilgrimage, as well as the seasons and vessels they traveled on have been analyzed based on 16,000 documents of the Croatian Maritime Regesta of the 18th century / Regesti marittimi croati del Settecento vol. I-III. Particular attention will also be given to small entrepreneurs, captains and shipowners, Croats and Italians, who have made these pilgrimages possible. The first two volumes of the maritime regesta were published in Padua (1985 and 1993), while the third one, that the author of this work had edited for print, was issued last year as an edition of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Split (2017). The documents pertaining to pilgrimages have been singled out and processed using a computer program that provides for faster analytics and facilitates further work.
The dissertation describes the pilgrims' preparation for such an important journey, which transforms from a personal decision into a choral act of a broader community that travels and prays. 
In addition to the classical historiographic approach and consideration given to the achievements of social, demographic and maritime history, the analysis of sources and coverage of the topic are also approached from the point of view of anthropology of the sacred, which indicates the sources and essence of the quest for the sacred and the divine since prehistoric times. A religious experience happens in a certain cultural and historical environment: one cannot reduce it solely to the historical, social or psychological dimension, or rule out in advance any transcendental perspective. A historian must not withdraw before those experiences but rather define clearly the role of man woven into the very source of the religious phenomenon.
The documents are not mere records of the arrivals and departures of vessels from ports, of the transport of goods, paid taxes and people’s journeys. They testify to the primordial human need for the supernatural, which does not settle merely for prayer in the community in which one lives and works, but is rather manifested in the readiness and boldness to embark on a long journey, often uncomfortable and unsafe, in order not only to realize in the walk towards the Unknown one's own faith, but also to share in meeting people from the other coast the cultural, social, religious and, naturally, economic koinè of Mare Nostrum.
A total of 303 pilgrimages to Loreto and Assisi have been found, attesting to 2,513 pilgrims travelling, mostly in large and organized groups of up to 80 people, from the east coast of the Adriatic - from Umag in the north to Boka Kotorska in the south - to these old and to Croatian believers well-known sanctuaries. At the forefront were the residents of Lošinj, who had demonstrated their loyalty to the Mother of God in 75 recorded journeys with 1,132 pilgrims setting off from that great Kvarner island.
The novelties presented in this dissertation are three-fold:
- Analysis of 16,000 Croatian maritime sources of which 4,000 have just been published. These are as of yet unprocessed documents in the Croatian historiography, providing us with a huge database and enabling us to gain completely new insights not just into the history of the Croatian 18th century in the Adriatic, but specifically into pilgrimages as a constitutive element of general Croatian history;

- Hermeneutics of the anthropology of the sacred in the historical analysis of pilgrimages;

- Use of computer software that reads digitalized documents like words (OCR) and enables saving them as Excel documents in which results can be systematized and synoptically analyzed – which in the case of such a large number of documents is also a valid methodological solution for similar and further extensive research.

Key words
Pilgrimages, pilgrims, captains, shipowners, maritime affairs, Croats, Loreto, Assisi, 18th century, Croatian Maritime Regesta, religious anthropology, sacred, sacral, prehistory, Mare Nostrum, Adriatic, Nikola Čolak