Relics were everywhere in medieval society. Saintly morsels such as bones, hair, teeth, blood, milk, and clothes, and items like the Crown of Thorns were thought to bring the believer closer to the saint, who might intercede with God on his or her behalf. This book presents an illustrated exploration of 1000 years of holy relics across Europe.

Prologue: the making of a martyr -- How the Christian relic emerged -- The incorruptible flesh of the martyrs -- Creating a Christian landscape -- The battle for acceptance -- The view from Byzantium -- Bishops, magic and relics in the post-Roman world -- 'A barbarous, fierce and unbelieving nation' -- The great consolidator -- Hope and desperation in a disordered world -- Cults and the rise of anti-semitism -- Fervent Christian pilgrims -- 'The eyes are fed with gold-bedecked reliquaries' -- Looting the East -- Louis IX and the Sainte-Chapelle -- Sacred flesh between death and resurrection -- 'Christ's recruits--fight back' -- Protectors of il Popolo -- The Virgin Mary and the penitent whore -- The wondrous blood of Christ -- Rescuers and devils -- 'Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands' -- 'dead images that-- may not--help any man of any disease' -- Protestantism and the new iconoclasm -- Intimations of reality -- Reasserting the miraculous -- Within the community of the supernatural.