The Cult of Saints is a major ERC Advanced Grant Project (340540), based at the University of Oxford with an offshoot at the University of Warsaw and partnership at the University of Reading, http://cultofsaints.history.ox.ac.uk/. It investigates the origins and development of the cult of Christian saints in Late Antiquity. It maps the cult of saints as a system of beliefs and practices in its earliest and most fluid form, from its origins until around AD 700 (by which date most cult practices were firmly established): the evolution from honouring the memory of martyrs, to their veneration as intercessors and miracle-workers; the different ways that saints were honoured and their help solicited; the devotion for relics, sacred sites and images; the miracles expected from the saints.

Central to the project is a searchable database, on which all the evidence for the cult of saints is being collected, presented (in its original languages and English translation), and succinctly discussed, whether in Armenian, Coptic, Georgian, Greek, Latin or Syriac.