| Abstract | Paper -a:
Travel in the Carolingian world (c.750-950) could be fraught with danger and difficulties. Men and beasts, the natural and the supernatural all hindered those who set out into the world. Yet, in spite of this, Carolingian hagiography overflows with tales of men and women making pilgrimages to the shrines of the saints. Using saints' lives and miracles collections this paper will investigate whom in Frankish society journeyed to the tombs of the holy dead and for what reasons. It will also investigate the impact of gender and social status on accessibility to travel in this era.
Paper -b:
This paper deals with the tradition related to famous holy icons of Virgin Mary and their significant role in the history of medieval monasteries: a) they guide traveller monks to found a cloister, b) choose their new 'shelter' after self-travelling, c) forewarn for 'undesirable arrivals' (pirates), and d) they are brought by holy men after a long journey or sent as a gift/offering by the Byzantine Emperors from Constantinople to a monastery. All these cases are affiliated to faith and miracles surviving in the Eastern Orthodox Church till nowadays.
Paper -c:
Sometimes, histories are forgotten. The scene of Nativity is widely know, with the baby Jesus in the centre, lying on the floor, radiating divine light, with Virgin Mary praying to him. What got lost is the notion that once, this Nativity was a part of a larger iconographic theme, Vision of St Birgitta. It was during her stay in Famagusta that Birgitta had a vision of the Nativity. Famagusta is known to most people only as the scene of Othello, the Moor of Venice. At the times of the Lusignan kings, it was a flourishing port. Now, Famagusta is close to a ghost city, full of remainders of former glory of which nobody cares. At a certain point in time and space, two histories met, one to flourish, one to gradually perish.
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