For centuries, prayer has played a central role in shaping worldviews, education, and religious experience, as well as structuring communities and everyday life across Europe. Despite the so-called “religious turn” in the humanities, prayer is still often treated as self-evident or ordinary. This has hindered a deeper historical understanding of this powerful and complex phenomenon in the late medieval and early modern periods.

From a European perspective, this era was formative in shaping both public and personal practices of prayer. Yet the study of prayer remains fragmented across disciplines. Addressing this gap, COST Action PRAYTICIPATE aims to develop a shared analytical framework for the study of prayer in Latin Christianity from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period.

This conference approaches prayer as a participatory, multi-layered practice — a social and communal act mediated through texts, objects, and sensory experiences that shape imagination, hope, and devotion.

Call for papers open until 15 August 2026 (.pdf)

Image: [David at prayer], [Koninklijke Bibliotheek], Public Domain Mark 1.0.