The Holy Land

For 800 years of the early Church's history, Pilgrims and Crusaders, made extended journeys to the Holy Land, returned to Europe with religious items they believed had supernatural powers. Nothing seemed too inconsequential to them so long as it had a religious connection; thus even dust from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over Jesus' alleged tomb, was worthy of veneration. Only in the thirteenth century, when the Eucharist and its powerful symbolism became central to Christian faith, did the obsession with relics subside. The Holy Land tells the story of their findings, together with the discoveries of many other travellers, pilgrims and explorers, who ventured to this land and whose revelations have added to the fascination of this area.