Zwischen Glaube und Geld

Zur Ökonomie des byzantinischen Pilgerwesens (4.-12. Jh.)

Piety is not the sole impulse for the development of Christian pilgrimage. From a wide chronological and regional perspective, the book deals with the economic connections which influenced the essence of Byzantine pilgrimages (5^th – 12^th c.).
To pilgrimage is always religiously motivated and socially imbedded, yet the detailed choice of the pilgrim’s destination, the route, the gifts of thanks at the end and many other aspects were and are determined by basic economic constants and time-dependent, social-economic dynamics.
The book highlights Byzantine pilgrims’ shrines, analyses their origins but also their structure of organisation and finance, which had already been legally framed during Late Antiquity.