Christian History Magazine—Issue 49: Everyday Faith in the Middle Ages

Top Highlights

“The most powerful form of prayer was the Mass, and saying masses for the dead was a central feature of popular faith.” (source)

“One central yearning had great force in later medieval life: an intense desire for religious experience.” (source)

“The disease, bubonic plague, was so lethal some went to bed well and died before morning; some doctors caught the illness at the patient’s bedside and died before the patient.” (source)

“Pilgrimage arose out of the intersection of two theological ideas: the need to do penance for sins and the cult of relics.” (source)

“A third of the world died.’ That would have meant about 20 million deaths.” (source)