Medieval Miracle Tales Related to GotlandMiracle collections and canonization processes from the Swedish Middle Ages contain some 600 accounts of people having experienced help after imploring the saints for intercession. This number includes miracles related to a miracle-working image of the Descent from the Cross in Stockholm. Only a small number of Swedish miracle tales have some connection with Gotland. This might be explained by the central position of the island in the network of trade and communication routes of the time. Gotlanders had a large choice of shrines around the Baltic Sea rim and on the continent, and there were also pilgrimage sites on Gotland itself.In a world where doctors were few and the results of their treatment dubious, where crossing the Baltic was a risky enterprise, and the legal rights of the individual precarious, the saints offered a sense of security and a belief that help was never far away. The Middle Ages may feel distant, but in the history of mankind, only a brief moment of time separates us from the people who lived in that period.