The aim of the project is to explain the origins of the cult of relics, one of the most fascinating religious phenomena in late Antiquity. How, why, when and where did a society – which avoided any contact with human remains so much – begin to take the bones of some deceased out of their graves, divide them, place them in altars, touch, kiss and treat them as a source of miraculous power? The role of the cult of relics in the evolution of mentality, liturgy, church structures, and even evolution of the economy, travel and political history of late Antiquity and subsequent periods would be difficult to underestimate. This is why the phenomenon has been of great interest to scholars for decades. However, so far research has focused usually either on the cult of relics within a small geographical region or on a broader phenomenon of the cult of saints. What we lack, on the other hand, is a monograph devoted to the origins of the cult of saints’ remains throughout the Mediterranean world, taking into account not only the Greek and Latin material, but also sources compiled in the languages of the ancient Christian East. Such a book will be a result of research carried out under the project. A publishing contract has already been signed with Oxford University Press and the book should be published in 2015.