The Cult of Saints and their associated relics were of major importance in medieval Europe. Saints' relics contributed to the prestige of the places where they were located and to the influence of the communities or individuals who owned them. Many churchmen travelled widely to collect relics and there are even cases of Holy theft, when the body of an important saint was stolen by a community. Caring for these relics was obviously important. In 875, when the threat of Viking attack became too severe for the monastic community at Lindisfarne, they dismantled the shrine of St Cuthbert and journeyed with his relics for twenty years before finally settling in Durham.

The beliefs and practices associated with the relics of the saints had a profound effect on church architecture. The provision of crypts for saintly burials had a marked effect on church design, while the great Romanesque churches of the pilgrimage routes evolved a design that could accommodate large numbers of pilgrims without disrupting the monastic services. The writing of saints' lives was an important branch of medieval literature, while the arts of painting and sculpture were also inspired by the deeds of the saints. The need to create fitting reliquaries for the important relics of the saints produced many superb examples of metalwork and enamelling. The saints were not only the inspiration for these artistic endeavours, they also generated the necessary patronage for these work to be carried out.

During the medieval period the numbers of pilgrims visiting major shrines rose dramatically. Churches along the pilgrim routes catered for these travellers, proving lodgings and care for the sick. By the late 14th century Chaucer could write of a group of pilgrims travelling together that included members of the church, a knight and his squire, guildsmen and even common people such as the miller and the reeve as a perfectly normal occurrence. People went on pilgrimage to cure illness, to seek salvation or to fulfil a sacred oath, but as the period went on the reasons for some pilgrimages might have become somewhat less religious. Chaucer's Wife of Bath, for instance, seems to have spent much of her time travelling more for pleasure than for salvation.

This day school will look at the origins of the Cult of Saints in late Antiquity and its subsequent development in England during the medieval period. We will also examine the material expression of the Cult of Saints as seen through the buildings and the arts of the period. In addition, we will consider some of the major English pilgrimage sites and the relics associated with them.

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