Ostensio Reliquiarum

The object analyzed here is the custom of the festival of relics (ostensio reliquiarum), at which the relics of a church were publicly displayed. On the basis of an examination of 24 late medieval relic festivals in the Roman-German regnum, the liturgical-ceremonial patterns of these festivals and their functions are presented, especially in the area of the system of indulgences and the representation of governing (especially the formation of residences).