Rosie Thomas-Boulgakova (KCL) - 2025-26 Students
rosie.j.thomas-boulgakova@kcl.ac.uk

Materiality, veneration and interaction with the cross in medieval and Byzantine sacred literature.

The crucifixion, for early and medieval Christians, represented both an historical fact of their religion and an eternally present reality, accessible through the Church’s rituals and sacraments. The cross, too, was both a physical object from a past event, and a fluid entity which could be reproduced and “accessed,” through devotional objects, visions, or hymns and other sacred literature. The Christian dogma of the incarnation produced a sacralized understanding of the physical world according to which holy objects, such as crosses, possessed spiritual and physical power. This power could be transmitted through physical contact (for instance veneration of icons and relics or carrying cross amulets) but also through sight and spiritual visions.

The project will investigate the relationship between late antique, medieval and Byzantine sacred literature and the materiality of the cross as a devotional object which inspired direct interaction. I ask how narration of these ‘interactions’ related to the interaction itself and how the reader/listener became involved in this interaction. The project will answer these questions by understanding cross-related literature within a conceptually “physical” reality in which subject, narrator, and audience participate in this interaction with the cross.

Principal supervisor: Dr James Corke-Webster