In the search of Heaven on Earth. Talk and book signing by Emma Wells.

Hallaton Festival of Archaeology

Queen Elizabeth's service took us inside the cathedral of Westminster. Emma tells us why people built such magnificent buildings.

St Michael and All Angels Church

Wandering the many gigantic cathedrals, quaint parish churches and ancient landscapes of Britain, we are surrounded by the many religious institutions that our modern faith was built upon. Many such edifices stand as ruins, empty reminders of an era of religious life so grand yet so ephemeral. Yet they once housed what can be argued as the main pillar of the religion of our medieval past: the relics of the saints. And to them virtually every level of society journeyed. This was known as pilgrimage.Saints were effectively the superheroes or celebrities of medieval European society. Though ordinary humans they had performed actions which made them extraordinary and used their powers to help and protect the vulnerable.Great or minor, churches were reliant on the acquisition of saintly relics. A church without relics was simply no temple to God at all. For saints were most powerful in their bones. The market for relics therefore became big business; a huge industry with an infrastructure and impact to match. Above all, it drove ecclesiastical authorities, for the grander their relic collection, the more money to enhance their churches, therefore the more pilgrims would visit their holy institutions. In short, without relics and pilgrimage to them, there would be no cathedrals or churches in Europe. Yet many pilgrims journeyed very short distances and so long-haul pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago, Canterbury or Jerusalem were the exception rather than the rule. This talk is therefore a human story set against the backdrop of some of the most astonishing achievements of Western civilisation, which propelled the medieval Church into an international superpower.

Signed copies of Emma's books "Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles" and "Heaven on Earth" will be available for purchase after the talk. Details of how to pre-order your copies will be sent to you after you purchase your ticket.

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In the search of Heaven on Earth. Talk and book signing by Emma Wells.

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In the search of Heaven on Earth. Talk and book signing by Emma Wells.

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