Relics and Shrines

From the flyleaf: 'David Sox turns his trained eye and enquiring mind to the fascinating subject of relics and shrines. He demonstrates with knowledge and enthusiasm that veneration for religious artifacts is by no means a phenomenon of the Middle Ages. Today, pilgrimages may be undertaken as package holidays,and are becoming increasingly popular. In the course of his book,David Sox takes the reader on a pilgrimage of his own throughout modern Christendom to examine objects and sites of faith ranging from fragments of bone and cloth housed in magnificent golden reliquaries to the bodies of incorruptible saints. He visits the site of St Bernadette's vision at Lourdes, the Holy Land, Rome, and even the vaults of the Midland Bank in Croydon in his search for items of interest to the historian and to anyone with curiosity in the concept and workings of faith. This is an absorbing and richly-detailed book which deals with its diverse subject matter in an immensely entertaining and informative manner.'