During the Middle Ages, religious travel was becoming popular. As more people began pilgrimages to seek out religious relics, different churches and monasteries began working to draw visitors and gain additional funding through donations left by the devout. Since very few churches or cities could lay claim to such renowned relics as were in Jerusalem and Rome, many commissioned elaborate housings for the small relics they did have in an attempt to draw visitors. It was during this time, roughly 1156 AD, that a small abbey in what is now known as Belgium commissioned local Mosan artists to create a reliquary to hold their small, precious relics. This is now…