| Summary: | On Saturday March 7, 1568 after an absence of twelve centuries and long and complicated negotiations, the remains of the child saints Justo and Pastor were returned to the city of their birth, Alcalá de Henares. In the words of Ambrosio de Morales, the chronicler of these events, the «gran aparato» deployed to receive the relics of the saints was formidable. Although none of the surviving testimonials concerning the child saints mentions the manner of veneration they inspired in the Christian community, it is easy to identify, behind the actions that took place on the day when the bodily remains of the child saints Justo and Pastor arrive in Alcalá, a long and profound tradition that dates back to the origins of Christianity. The transfer of the child saints’ relics, and their return to a place of origin, provided a favorable occasion to reproduce and relive the manifestations of the cult accorded to the saint, in this precise case to a martyred saint, and more concretely to his relics.
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