Product Description

Holy relics -- the bodily remains of saints and other sacred figures -- were for centuries the most revered objects in the Western world, at center-stage in Europe's great churches and cathedrals. Today some relics have been shunted to side chapels and dark crypts, yet many continue to draw prayerful pilgrims, as they have for centuries, seeking solace, inspiration, and signs of miracles. In Magnificent Corpses, Anneli Rufus recounts her visits to 18 of Europe's most significant relics. With an engaging mix of history and personal narrative, Rufus tells their secret stories and, along the way, revisits with a fresh eye the compelling accounts of the saints whose physical bodies the relics represent.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #317576 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Disgraceful bias...
I will not write the name of the Faith followed by the woman who wrote this disgraceful book. It has been vilified and insulted enough throughout the past two thousand years. Nevertheless, I would have hoped that a journalist and writer of her ability could apply her talents in a more scholarly, informed and tolerant manner. Not only does she distort the stories of a random selection of Christian Saints, but her narrative all too frequently degenerates into bizarre fashion trivia, snatches of overheard conversations and comments made by cynical stallholders and bored custodians. Whether the shrines are packed to capacity or dusty and deserted, her air of moral superiority never falters. The word "rush" crops up in almost every chapter - often relating to women who are, in her opinion, either poorly dressed or decked out in the height of opulent vulgarity. These pilgrims/visitors/tourists are ruthlessly dissected and mocked - much as the Saints she purports to describe. Seldom have I been more disappointed in a book. If the author intended to demolish the veneration of saints and their relics, then her insidious and manipulative prose failed to arouse in this reviewer much more than disgust and nausea at her audacity.