Pilgrimage and Embodiment: Captives and the Cult of Saints in Late Medieval Bavaria

Abstract

Historians have traditionally suggested that the cult of saints underwent two main transformations during the later Middle Ages. First, it is frequently argued that saints' bodies became less necessary at shrines as cults became more delocalised. Second, as Lionel Rothkrug has asserted, the act of pilgrimage became more about 'looking forward in hope' than 'looking backward in gratitude'. This article explores the nature of late-medieval pilgrimage in the light of these assertions. I concentrate on the cult of St Leonard, patron saint of prisoners, and the promotion of his cult in the small Bavarian town of Inchenhofen from the thirteenth century. My argument is that the cult of St Leonard reveals that bodies remained a focal point of devotional practice at this shrine, and that the act of pilgrimage itself might usefully be seen as a generative act or process of embodiment.

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