### relic, cult of relics
In its original meaning it is the body, body-parts bones or objects of saints. The development of the cult of relics is in connection with the cult of martyrs. Relics were already highly respected in the first centuries of Christianity. The first cultic objects were brought into Hungary during the reign of King Stephen, then their number increased at the time of canonisations with the relics of St Stephen and St Gerald. King Andrew II brought several relics from the Holy Land in 1218, which he distributed among the prelates. Residences of bishops, preposteries and abbeys also had famous relics, which became the cultic centers of the given territories owing to pilgrimages.