Today marks the commemoration day of a remarkable English mystic, Margery Kempe, a middle-class, medieval woman born in what is now King’s Lynn, Norfolk around 1373, where she died after 1439. We know of Kempe’s life through the chance discovery of her dictated work, The Book of Margery Kempe, in the twentieth century. From her Book, which is considered the first autobiography written in English, we learn that Kempe was married and bore fourteen children before negotiating a chaste marriage. After the birth of her first child, Kempe suffered from demonic visions before having a saving vision of Christ. The heart of Kempe’s Book is her love for God: her visions of Christ, the grand tears she wept for him, her afflictions for his love, and the many religious pilgrimages she undertook where these accounts took place.

In early May 2022, the science lab of the Bader International Study Centre (BISC) became the nexus where hundreds of artefacts with drastically different histories, material properties, and provenance all came together. Iridescent glass fragments, WWII Royal Air Force porcelain, and archaeological iron horseshoes, all found on the grounds of Herstmonceux, currently occupy the same space as a large collection of Roman artefacts on loan from local Bexhill Museum. The former, temporarily removed from the Castle’s Visitor Centre, have been assessed, documented, and digitised by graduate students in Art Conservation and in Digital Media, and the latter, catalogued by undergraduates participating in the BISC Archaeology Field School.

The Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) is an important, ancient symbol in Christian iconography. The symbol is a representation of Christ’s sacrifice, as demonstrated by the lamb, and his victory, as demonstrated by the cross. The term is associated with the Paschal lamb sacrificed during Passover (as seen in Exodus chapter 12), which then later came to be a symbol associated with Easter due to the occurrence of Passover and Easter in the same time period.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in drastic social and economic impacts, the need for an escape through tourism remains steady. Heritage Tourism remains one of the industry’s most popular forms. Heritage Tourism can be as ‘travellers seeing or experiencing built heritage, living culture or contemporary arts. Encountering a site and its stories can transport you back to a different time and place, which is something many people could use given the current state of the world. A great example of a heritage site with striking tangible features, and various compelling, hidden stories is the Herstmonceux Castle Estate.

This series of three blog posts explores the pilgrim badges of Saint Job from Wezemaal, Belgium. This series considers these badges as a form of adaptation, informed by biblical, legendary, and literary accounts of Job that were popular in the medieval imagination. The overarching question that inspired these blog posts is: Why was Job the only Old Testament figure to be venerated by pilgrims as a saint? 

To learn more about the medieval badges from these famous sites, Ann Marie Rasmussen met virtually with Dr. Carolin Rinn to discuss her dissertation, “Between Memory and Mediation of Salvation: Visuality and Mediality of the Medieval Pilgrim Badges from Aachen and Canterbury.” Carolin shared her experience studying medieval badges as an art historian and the findings and implications of her research. 

The Golden Scabs of Saint Job - Exploring the Medieval Pilgrim Badges of Saint Job in Wezemaal (BE)

This series of three blog posts explores the pilgrim badges of Saint Job from Wezemaal, Belgium. This series considers these badges as a form of adaptation, informed by biblical, legendary, and literary accounts of Job that were popular in the medieval imagination. The overarching question that inspired these blog posts is: Why was Job the only Old Testament figure to be venerated by pilgrims as a saint? 

A special thanks to Guillaume Herrou for making his thesis, “La Collection des enseignes de plomb du Musée des Antiquités de Rouen” (written in French) available to the Medieval Badges community. Guillaume’s thesis was conducted under the supervision of Béatrice de Chancel-Bardelot, Curator in Chief, and Jean-Christophe Ton-That, Chief of the Resource Center, from the Musée de Cluny – Musée National du Moyen Âge.

This series of three blog posts explores the pilgrim badges of Saint Job from Wezemaal, Belgium. This series considers these badges as a form of adaptation, informed by biblical, legendary, and literary accounts of Job that were popular in the medieval imagination. The overarching question that inspires these blog posts is: Why was Job the only Old Testament figure to be venerated by pilgrims as a saint?

The badges from Rostock and their corroborating evidence testify to the wide-ranging mobility of Rostock pilgrims. This fact should not surprise us; after all, the burghers of Rostock were sea-faring merchants and traders. The sum total of these artifacts suggests that piety wove together many strands of the lives of the inhabitants of medieval Rostock.

Dr. Ansorge’s article shows us the detective archaeologist at work, seeking out disparate kinds of evidence for clues to better understand the landscapes of religious belief in medieval northern Germany. To contextualize the Rostock badges, Ansorge unearths evidence from archives, manuscripts, early printed broadsheets, and books, and from other unusual sources as well. Each source requires different contextual knowledge and a different interpretative stance. Ansorge views these sources as a kind of assemblage in which different kinds of evidence provide a deeper understanding of late medieval piety while supplementing the picture of where Rostock pilgrims travelled with new information.

The twenty-nine pilgrim badges found in Rostock testify to journeys to different holy sites. Medieval pilgrims purchased religious badges at the sites they visited and then brought the objects home with them. Dr. Ansorge uses the badges found in Rostock as evidence to see where and how far the Rostock pilgrims travelled. 

With Valentine’s Day just ahead of us, lovebirds are nestling. Red roses are being prepared. Cards decorated with hearts and scribbled love notes will be exchanged between lovers and friends. Whether you love or loathe this February celebration, one thing is clear: drawing on several centuries of cultural imagery, Valentine’s Day symbols are strong and here to stay.

This blog post in four parts focusses on twenty-nine medieval badges found in the Baltic coastal town of Rostock, Germany. It summarizes a recent article by Dr. Jörg Ansorge, one of the premier archaeologists working with pilgrim badges in Germany today. The article discusses all badges that were found in Rostock by 2018 (more have been found since then). Dr. Ansorge pays meticulous attention to different kinds of evidence in order to create rich contexts for the found badges. He draws conclusions that allow us to glimpse people’s religious practices in medieval Rostock and to better understand how medieval people used their religious badges.