ABSTRACT
Many of the new saints in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were bishops of the Holy Roman Empire. This is surprising, as they had obligations to the emperor and were deeply involved in politics, some even acting as king’s chancellor. In the investiture contest, this structure and interconnection of the bishop’s worldly and ecclesiastical offices was intensively debated and criticized. Based on a case study on two sainted archbishops of Cologne, Heribert (+1022) and Anno II (+1075), the paper therefore asks how these bishops were presented in their written vitae, and how they were depicted on their shrines to demonstrate their sanctity. Which ideals of sanctity do they propagate? Who do they address? In general, we assume that churches praised the power and miracles of their saints to attract pilgrims, and that they exploited the saints’ golden shrines to impress pilgrims. However, the analysis of the two shrines at Cologne-Deutz and Siegburg will show that they were directed mainly to the spiritual communities the venerated bishops had founded and had chosen for burial places, and who kept their memories.
