The Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM-NOVA FCSH), in partnership with the Centre of Religious History Studies (UCP-CEHR), promotes the International Seminar on Medieval Religious History, which thus resumes, with a new format and scope, the tradition of the previous cycles of the Medieval Religious History Seminar, interrupted in 2013.

In the year 2021/2022, and in coordination with the PEREGRINATIO Research Network for the Study of Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages in Portugal, the Seminar will adopt “Shrines, Relics and Pilgrimages” as its general theme.

The sessions take place on the first Thursday of each month, at 6 p.m., by Zoom and are open to all interested parties.

The conference on 4 November, entitled “Sanctuaires et pèlerinages“, will be given by Prof. André Vauchez, a renowned figure in the study of medieval religious history and spirituality. The chosen theme – Sanctuaries and Pilgrimages – sets out the results of his most recent research on this theme, equating the fruitful and multifaceted relationships between the phenomena around pilgrimages and sanctuaries, the sites containing the bodies of saints and the most diverse relics, the stages of miracles quickly propagated by communities that ensured their liturgical service and the destination for pilgrims whether there to request divine favour or give thanks for an already worked miracle.