In the book The Age of Faith, historian Will Durant describes how this came about, saying: “As the number of worshiped saints multiplied, a need arose for identifying and remembering them; pictures of them and of Mary were produced in great number; and in the case of Christ not only His imagined form but His cross became objects of reverence ​ — even, for simple minds, magic talismans.
בספר עידן האמונה ‏ (The Age of Faith) מסביר ההיסטוריון וויל דוראנט כיצד התרחש התהליך: ” כאשר נתרבו הקדושים ־ הנערצים התעורר הצורך לשמור את שמם וזכרם.