Frank Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195136401
- eISBN:
- 9780199835164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195136403.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Considers the ways in which sanctity is constructed in folklore, hagiography, iconography, and testimony taken during processes for canonization. Detailed analysis elucidates how an unrealized ideal ...
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Considers the ways in which sanctity is constructed in folklore, hagiography, iconography, and testimony taken during processes for canonization. Detailed analysis elucidates how an unrealized ideal constructed textually serves as the model for aspirants to sanctity, how this prototype becomes a palimpsest as over the centuries new textually constructed lives are embedded, how tautology contributes to perceptions of sanctity, and how true saints are distinguished from impostors. The case material includes saints Catherine of Siena, Mariana of Jesus, and Teresa of Avila, in addition to Rose of Lima.Less
Considers the ways in which sanctity is constructed in folklore, hagiography, iconography, and testimony taken during processes for canonization. Detailed analysis elucidates how an unrealized ideal constructed textually serves as the model for aspirants to sanctity, how this prototype becomes a palimpsest as over the centuries new textually constructed lives are embedded, how tautology contributes to perceptions of sanctity, and how true saints are distinguished from impostors. The case material includes saints Catherine of Siena, Mariana of Jesus, and Teresa of Avila, in addition to Rose of Lima.
Susannah Crowder
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526106407
- eISBN:
- 9781526141989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526106407.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Female performers exist in a shadowy and illusory state, fashioned as such by our histories. Medieval chronicles systematically exclude women, inhibiting an understanding of them as actors in Metz ...
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Female performers exist in a shadowy and illusory state, fashioned as such by our histories. Medieval chronicles systematically exclude women, inhibiting an understanding of them as actors in Metz and beyond. Yet the performing women of the 1468 Catherine of Siena jeu staged an interplay among personal devotion, political affiliation, and gendered notions of urban sanctity; this multiform and yet cohesive undertaking becomes fully visible through the triangulation of new material and familiar narrative evidence. This chapter first uncovers the distorting effects of written histories upon the Saint Catherine actor and constructions of female performance. It then turns to the archives and material culture to reveal the hidden family identity and social status of the actor: the role transformed its player permanently, positioning her as the living symbol of the saint within Metz. The patron, named Catherine Baudoche, also secured a lasting connection to the saint by referencing her personal foundations at the Dominicans. It aligned her with an elite group of regional women who promoted Catherine of Siena through liturgy, architecture, and manuscript illumination. The Saint Catherine jeu thus situates the actor and patron amid a community of practice that depicted women at the forefront of shared devotions to Saint Catherine within the urban, public sphere.Less
Female performers exist in a shadowy and illusory state, fashioned as such by our histories. Medieval chronicles systematically exclude women, inhibiting an understanding of them as actors in Metz and beyond. Yet the performing women of the 1468 Catherine of Siena jeu staged an interplay among personal devotion, political affiliation, and gendered notions of urban sanctity; this multiform and yet cohesive undertaking becomes fully visible through the triangulation of new material and familiar narrative evidence. This chapter first uncovers the distorting effects of written histories upon the Saint Catherine actor and constructions of female performance. It then turns to the archives and material culture to reveal the hidden family identity and social status of the actor: the role transformed its player permanently, positioning her as the living symbol of the saint within Metz. The patron, named Catherine Baudoche, also secured a lasting connection to the saint by referencing her personal foundations at the Dominicans. It aligned her with an elite group of regional women who promoted Catherine of Siena through liturgy, architecture, and manuscript illumination. The Saint Catherine jeu thus situates the actor and patron amid a community of practice that depicted women at the forefront of shared devotions to Saint Catherine within the urban, public sphere.
Frank Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195136401
- eISBN:
- 9780199835164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195136403.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Discusses the wound in Christ’s side as a breast where nourishment and eroticism interact dynamically, including examples from the lives of Catherine of Siena, Maria Maddalena de’Pazzi, Angela of ...
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Discusses the wound in Christ’s side as a breast where nourishment and eroticism interact dynamically, including examples from the lives of Catherine of Siena, Maria Maddalena de’Pazzi, Angela of Foligno, and Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, in addition to Rose of Lima. Flames of passion and wounds of love are then analyzed, including Teresa of Avila’s transverberation and the Mercedes graphics produced by Rose of Lima. The chapter concludes with an analysis of mystical marriage, in Rose’s life and generally, as a symbolic complex in which varied strategies of uniting with Christ–inedia, eucharistic devotion, erotic agony, unitive identification, and heart exchange, among others–are integrated into a comprehensive agenda.Less
Discusses the wound in Christ’s side as a breast where nourishment and eroticism interact dynamically, including examples from the lives of Catherine of Siena, Maria Maddalena de’Pazzi, Angela of Foligno, and Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, in addition to Rose of Lima. Flames of passion and wounds of love are then analyzed, including Teresa of Avila’s transverberation and the Mercedes graphics produced by Rose of Lima. The chapter concludes with an analysis of mystical marriage, in Rose’s life and generally, as a symbolic complex in which varied strategies of uniting with Christ–inedia, eucharistic devotion, erotic agony, unitive identification, and heart exchange, among others–are integrated into a comprehensive agenda.
Frank Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195136401
- eISBN:
- 9780199835164
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195136403.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
An in-depth study of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617), canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World, serves to explore the meanings of female mysticism and the ways in which saints are products ...
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An in-depth study of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617), canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World, serves to explore the meanings of female mysticism and the ways in which saints are products of their cultures. The opening chapter analyzes trends in scholarship on mysticism and the interrelations of sanctity and insanity. Rose and flower poetics are then pursued into the odor of sanctity, “deflowering,” edenic imagery, and the miracle by which Rose of Lima received her name. Two historical chapters analyze the politics of Rose of Lima’s canonization, exploring how mystical union bypasses sacramental and sacerdotal channels, poses an implicit threat to the bureaucratized church, and may be co-opted to integrate a competing claim into the Catholic canon. Virginity, austerity, mortification, eucharistic devotion, visions, expression of love through suffering, ecstasy, and mystical marriage are then studied both in themselves and in their relations to eroticism and to modern psychological disorders.Less
An in-depth study of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617), canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World, serves to explore the meanings of female mysticism and the ways in which saints are products of their cultures. The opening chapter analyzes trends in scholarship on mysticism and the interrelations of sanctity and insanity. Rose and flower poetics are then pursued into the odor of sanctity, “deflowering,” edenic imagery, and the miracle by which Rose of Lima received her name. Two historical chapters analyze the politics of Rose of Lima’s canonization, exploring how mystical union bypasses sacramental and sacerdotal channels, poses an implicit threat to the bureaucratized church, and may be co-opted to integrate a competing claim into the Catholic canon. Virginity, austerity, mortification, eucharistic devotion, visions, expression of love through suffering, ecstasy, and mystical marriage are then studied both in themselves and in their relations to eroticism and to modern psychological disorders.
Tina Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199566075
- eISBN:
- 9780191747359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566075.003.0020
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on Catherine of Siena. It criticizes Jacques Lacan’s romanticization of female mysticism, arguing that Catherine’s Dialogue is a carefully crafted exercise in vernacular ...
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This chapter focuses on Catherine of Siena. It criticizes Jacques Lacan’s romanticization of female mysticism, arguing that Catherine’s Dialogue is a carefully crafted exercise in vernacular theology. In critical engagement with Luce Irigaray, and informed by the work of Amy Hollywood, Karen Scott, Suzanne Noffke, and Jane Tylus, it explores Catherine’s Dialogue in terms of gender, language, and desire. It argues that, while sharing the same theological principles as Thomas, Catherine uses the mystical body of Christ as an analogical resource which offers a cataphatic incarnational Thomism. Her rejection of Thomas’s privileging of the contemplative life offers a radical theology of neighbourly love which provides a response to Freud, and her appropriation of a corporeal language of rapture constitutes a bold defiance of the castrating cut of language and ruptures the boundaries of Thomist apophaticism. The chapter concludes with Catherine’s letter to Raymond of Capua where she describes accompanying a dying man to the scaffold.Less
This chapter focuses on Catherine of Siena. It criticizes Jacques Lacan’s romanticization of female mysticism, arguing that Catherine’s Dialogue is a carefully crafted exercise in vernacular theology. In critical engagement with Luce Irigaray, and informed by the work of Amy Hollywood, Karen Scott, Suzanne Noffke, and Jane Tylus, it explores Catherine’s Dialogue in terms of gender, language, and desire. It argues that, while sharing the same theological principles as Thomas, Catherine uses the mystical body of Christ as an analogical resource which offers a cataphatic incarnational Thomism. Her rejection of Thomas’s privileging of the contemplative life offers a radical theology of neighbourly love which provides a response to Freud, and her appropriation of a corporeal language of rapture constitutes a bold defiance of the castrating cut of language and ruptures the boundaries of Thomist apophaticism. The chapter concludes with Catherine’s letter to Raymond of Capua where she describes accompanying a dying man to the scaffold.
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The General Introduction explains the reasons for a study on Catherine of Siena and specifically on her teaching on discretion. Having set out the plan of her research and the methodological approach ...
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The General Introduction explains the reasons for a study on Catherine of Siena and specifically on her teaching on discretion. Having set out the plan of her research and the methodological approach the book follows, this Introduction then summarizes the salient events in Catherine’s life, thus setting Catherine’s reflection against its historical context.Less
The General Introduction explains the reasons for a study on Catherine of Siena and specifically on her teaching on discretion. Having set out the plan of her research and the methodological approach the book follows, this Introduction then summarizes the salient events in Catherine’s life, thus setting Catherine’s reflection against its historical context.
Rosa De Lima
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195157239
- eISBN:
- 9780199849680
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195157239.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the saint-making process of America's first saint, Rosa de Lima. Through a reconstruction of her life story as an ascetic third-order Dominican in Lima and an examination of her ...
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This chapter examines the saint-making process of America's first saint, Rosa de Lima. Through a reconstruction of her life story as an ascetic third-order Dominican in Lima and an examination of her canonization process from 1617 to 1691, one can glimpse the often inconsistent observation of rules of sainthood in the century after the Counter-Reformation, which had revised the Catholic Church's guidelines for sanctity. Rosa's choice to remain outside the convent as a lay religious woman and to follow extreme penitential practices reflected a largely unchanged expression of feminine affective piety and undermined the Counter-Reformation's attempts to curb individual spiritual practices and to cloister women.Less
This chapter examines the saint-making process of America's first saint, Rosa de Lima. Through a reconstruction of her life story as an ascetic third-order Dominican in Lima and an examination of her canonization process from 1617 to 1691, one can glimpse the often inconsistent observation of rules of sainthood in the century after the Counter-Reformation, which had revised the Catholic Church's guidelines for sanctity. Rosa's choice to remain outside the convent as a lay religious woman and to follow extreme penitential practices reflected a largely unchanged expression of feminine affective piety and undermined the Counter-Reformation's attempts to curb individual spiritual practices and to cloister women.
Tina Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199566075
- eISBN:
- 9780191747359
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This is the first book published in English to offer a Lacanian feminist reading of Thomas Aquinas. Focusing on the centrality of desire and embodiment in Thomas’s theology and Lacan’s psychoanalytic ...
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This is the first book published in English to offer a Lacanian feminist reading of Thomas Aquinas. Focusing on the centrality of desire and embodiment in Thomas’s theology and Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, it traces an overgrown path through changing configurations of God, gender, and nature from their Aristotelian formation in the medieval universities to their fragmentation in the collapse of modernity’s visions and values. Theology after Postmodernity offers a penetrating critique of Thomas’s Aristotelianism, while excavating the neglected mystical dimensions of his theology. In engagement with Lacan, it explores the ways in which the God of pre-modern Catholicism remains an unconscious but potent influence in the shaping of the modern soul, and it asks what transformations might be needed in order to bring about a Thomism for our times. Probing beneath the surface of Thomas’s Summa Theologiae and other writings, and drawing on the writings of Catherine of Siena as well as Thomas, it brings to light the Other of Thomas’s One God—an ephemeral maternal Trinity who shimmers into view when Thomas’s Aristotelian onto-theology is suspended to allow a more incarnational and relational theology to emerge. The book argues that Lacan makes possible a renewed Thomism in the form of a rich mystical theology of creation, incarnation, and redemption. This mystical Thomism offers a theological vision that addresses some of the most urgent and far-reaching challenges which postmodernity poses to Christian doctrine and practice, with a particular focus on questions of God, grace, nature, and gender.Less
This is the first book published in English to offer a Lacanian feminist reading of Thomas Aquinas. Focusing on the centrality of desire and embodiment in Thomas’s theology and Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, it traces an overgrown path through changing configurations of God, gender, and nature from their Aristotelian formation in the medieval universities to their fragmentation in the collapse of modernity’s visions and values. Theology after Postmodernity offers a penetrating critique of Thomas’s Aristotelianism, while excavating the neglected mystical dimensions of his theology. In engagement with Lacan, it explores the ways in which the God of pre-modern Catholicism remains an unconscious but potent influence in the shaping of the modern soul, and it asks what transformations might be needed in order to bring about a Thomism for our times. Probing beneath the surface of Thomas’s Summa Theologiae and other writings, and drawing on the writings of Catherine of Siena as well as Thomas, it brings to light the Other of Thomas’s One God—an ephemeral maternal Trinity who shimmers into view when Thomas’s Aristotelian onto-theology is suspended to allow a more incarnational and relational theology to emerge. The book argues that Lacan makes possible a renewed Thomism in the form of a rich mystical theology of creation, incarnation, and redemption. This mystical Thomism offers a theological vision that addresses some of the most urgent and far-reaching challenges which postmodernity poses to Christian doctrine and practice, with a particular focus on questions of God, grace, nature, and gender.
Susannah Crowder
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526106407
- eISBN:
- 9781526141989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526106407.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
In the spring of 1468, a special jeu – probably taking the form of a theatrical representation in verse – was mounted in the courtyard of the Dominican convent of Metz. This performance portrayed the ...
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In the spring of 1468, a special jeu – probably taking the form of a theatrical representation in verse – was mounted in the courtyard of the Dominican convent of Metz. This performance portrayed the life of Saint Catherine of Siena, the charismatic urban visionary and reformer who had been canonised just seven years before. Two living women shaped the play, however, both of them also called Catherine: an actor who played the saint, and a patron who sponsored the performance. This event and its female creators point to a richness of female practice in contrast with the old stereotype of the “all-male stage”. This first section thus introduces the historical Catherines who anchor the book as well as the performance methodology used to access their hidden lives and activities beyond the play. It integrates theories of bodily performance with new approaches to patronage, personal devotion, and drama; this enables a broader picture of women’s contributions to late-medieval public life and urban culture. Women’s lives must be studied within a wider social and cultural framework to uncover the full scope of public performance that the Catherines and other women engaged in.Less
In the spring of 1468, a special jeu – probably taking the form of a theatrical representation in verse – was mounted in the courtyard of the Dominican convent of Metz. This performance portrayed the life of Saint Catherine of Siena, the charismatic urban visionary and reformer who had been canonised just seven years before. Two living women shaped the play, however, both of them also called Catherine: an actor who played the saint, and a patron who sponsored the performance. This event and its female creators point to a richness of female practice in contrast with the old stereotype of the “all-male stage”. This first section thus introduces the historical Catherines who anchor the book as well as the performance methodology used to access their hidden lives and activities beyond the play. It integrates theories of bodily performance with new approaches to patronage, personal devotion, and drama; this enables a broader picture of women’s contributions to late-medieval public life and urban culture. Women’s lives must be studied within a wider social and cultural framework to uncover the full scope of public performance that the Catherines and other women engaged in.
Thomas A. Prendergast and Stephanie Trigg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526126863
- eISBN:
- 9781526142009
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526126863.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
As a disciplinary formation, Medieval Studies has long been structured by authoritative hierarchies and conservative scholarly decorums; the associated fear of error in medieval studies dates back to ...
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As a disciplinary formation, Medieval Studies has long been structured by authoritative hierarchies and conservative scholarly decorums; the associated fear of error in medieval studies dates back to the Renaissance and the Protestant reformation. In contrast, medievalism increasingly celebrates creative play and imaginative invention. Such invention inevitably produces anxiety about historical accuracy. Popular scholarship and journalism in turn are often attracted to the abject otherness of the Middle Ages, especially the torture practices associated with its judicial systems. Such practices are designed to solicit the truth, and so, like illness, mortality and death, they are a useful double trope through which to analyse the relationship between medieval and medievalist approaches to the past.Less
As a disciplinary formation, Medieval Studies has long been structured by authoritative hierarchies and conservative scholarly decorums; the associated fear of error in medieval studies dates back to the Renaissance and the Protestant reformation. In contrast, medievalism increasingly celebrates creative play and imaginative invention. Such invention inevitably produces anxiety about historical accuracy. Popular scholarship and journalism in turn are often attracted to the abject otherness of the Middle Ages, especially the torture practices associated with its judicial systems. Such practices are designed to solicit the truth, and so, like illness, mortality and death, they are a useful double trope through which to analyse the relationship between medieval and medievalist approaches to the past.
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The Dialogue (or “Book of Divine Providence”) is Catherine’s greatest mystical work, which reflects the spiritual maturity of her thought. The chapter first examines the time and manner of its ...
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The Dialogue (or “Book of Divine Providence”) is Catherine’s greatest mystical work, which reflects the spiritual maturity of her thought. The chapter first examines the time and manner of its composition. Was the Dialogue composed in a few days or over a relatively extended period of time? Was it composed while Catherine was in a state of ecstasy, or was it the result of postecstatic dictation? Then, after dwelling on how the Dialogue relates to the Letters and summarizing its structure in light of the manuscripts and Latin translations, the chapter addresses the question of authenticity, concluding with the best literary criticism that the book has a unified character and bears Catherine’s imprint.Less
The Dialogue (or “Book of Divine Providence”) is Catherine’s greatest mystical work, which reflects the spiritual maturity of her thought. The chapter first examines the time and manner of its composition. Was the Dialogue composed in a few days or over a relatively extended period of time? Was it composed while Catherine was in a state of ecstasy, or was it the result of postecstatic dictation? Then, after dwelling on how the Dialogue relates to the Letters and summarizing its structure in light of the manuscripts and Latin translations, the chapter addresses the question of authenticity, concluding with the best literary criticism that the book has a unified character and bears Catherine’s imprint.
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Can one attribute to Catherine the writings that go under her name, and can therefore one speak of an authentic concept of discretion attributable to Catherine? As there are no autographs by ...
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Can one attribute to Catherine the writings that go under her name, and can therefore one speak of an authentic concept of discretion attributable to Catherine? As there are no autographs by Catherine, the first question is to ascertain which writings are attributable to her. After briefly examining the uncertain attribution of the Dialogus brevis (“Devout revelation”), the chapter addresses the question whether Catherine knew how to write. The available sources do not allow any definitive answer to this question. What is certain, though, is that between Catherine and her readers there is invariably the interposing presence of the amanuenses to whom she used to dictate. Hence the ensuing chapters analyze the role played by these amanuenses, who were her disciples and secretaries, in the composition of the writings attributed to Catherine.Less
Can one attribute to Catherine the writings that go under her name, and can therefore one speak of an authentic concept of discretion attributable to Catherine? As there are no autographs by Catherine, the first question is to ascertain which writings are attributable to her. After briefly examining the uncertain attribution of the Dialogus brevis (“Devout revelation”), the chapter addresses the question whether Catherine knew how to write. The available sources do not allow any definitive answer to this question. What is certain, though, is that between Catherine and her readers there is invariably the interposing presence of the amanuenses to whom she used to dictate. Hence the ensuing chapters analyze the role played by these amanuenses, who were her disciples and secretaries, in the composition of the writings attributed to Catherine.
Belden C. Lane
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190842673
- eISBN:
- 9780190936402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190842673.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion, World Religions
Catherine of Siena thought that fire was the best image for describing God’s nature, as well as the longing within her for union with God’s fiery love. Fire, says Bachelard, is both a domestic ...
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Catherine of Siena thought that fire was the best image for describing God’s nature, as well as the longing within her for union with God’s fiery love. Fire, says Bachelard, is both a domestic element (symbolic of warmth, love, and the hearth) and an unruly element (wild, threatening, attacking from without). In alchemy, fire is that catalyst for change. In religious symbolism, it signifies the transformative power of the divine and the flaming passion of human desire. Both can be as dangerous as they are life-changing. The author explores this nature archetype as he backpacks through a recently burned forest in Wyoming. He points the reader to Catherine’s “fire of holy desire” continually burning within her. Fire was her favorite element—full of life, intensity, brilliance, death, and danger. She knew God above everything else to be a fire of love. This is what set her aflame. “If you are what you should be,” she wrote to a friend, “you will set the world on fire.”Less
Catherine of Siena thought that fire was the best image for describing God’s nature, as well as the longing within her for union with God’s fiery love. Fire, says Bachelard, is both a domestic element (symbolic of warmth, love, and the hearth) and an unruly element (wild, threatening, attacking from without). In alchemy, fire is that catalyst for change. In religious symbolism, it signifies the transformative power of the divine and the flaming passion of human desire. Both can be as dangerous as they are life-changing. The author explores this nature archetype as he backpacks through a recently burned forest in Wyoming. He points the reader to Catherine’s “fire of holy desire” continually burning within her. Fire was her favorite element—full of life, intensity, brilliance, death, and danger. She knew God above everything else to be a fire of love. This is what set her aflame. “If you are what you should be,” she wrote to a friend, “you will set the world on fire.”
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The title Letters denotes a collection of 382 letters written between 1370 and 1380 to different categories of addressees, from clergy to religious men and women, from statesmen to friends and ...
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The title Letters denotes a collection of 382 letters written between 1370 and 1380 to different categories of addressees, from clergy to religious men and women, from statesmen to friends and relatives. This chapter summarizes the origins of the manuscript collections of the Letters; she then examines their composition, discussing the role of the copyists of the manuscript collections and of the secretaries who took down all the letters in writing from Catherine’s dictation. The conclusion is consistent with that of the leading literary critics, namely, that the Letters as a whole, though not autographical, are substantially authentic and rightly attributed to Catherine.Less
The title Letters denotes a collection of 382 letters written between 1370 and 1380 to different categories of addressees, from clergy to religious men and women, from statesmen to friends and relatives. This chapter summarizes the origins of the manuscript collections of the Letters; she then examines their composition, discussing the role of the copyists of the manuscript collections and of the secretaries who took down all the letters in writing from Catherine’s dictation. The conclusion is consistent with that of the leading literary critics, namely, that the Letters as a whole, though not autographical, are substantially authentic and rightly attributed to Catherine.
David Biale
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253049
- eISBN:
- 9780520934238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253049.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter demonstrates the competing claims of Jews and Christians to enjoy a covenant of blood with God through late antiquity. The biblical idea that blood was the link between God and his ...
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This chapter demonstrates the competing claims of Jews and Christians to enjoy a covenant of blood with God through late antiquity. The biblical idea that blood was the link between God and his people found its medieval expression, although blood continued to serve as a memorial of the covenant, as it did in late antiquity. Ashkenazic Jews seemed to believe that the blood of the martyrs was, in a very real sense, God's own blood that cried out to be returned to its source. In this belief they were not far at all from Catherine of Siena's ecstatic immersion in the blood of her God. Far more than she was aware, blood did, indeed, mark the chasm between medieval Jews and Christians, but those on both of its sides spoke a remarkably similar language. Moreover, Jews and Christians became increasingly aware of each other's beliefs and practices and turned these understandings—and, perhaps as often, misunderstandings—of the other into the stuff of polemics, which involved singularly violent language.Less
This chapter demonstrates the competing claims of Jews and Christians to enjoy a covenant of blood with God through late antiquity. The biblical idea that blood was the link between God and his people found its medieval expression, although blood continued to serve as a memorial of the covenant, as it did in late antiquity. Ashkenazic Jews seemed to believe that the blood of the martyrs was, in a very real sense, God's own blood that cried out to be returned to its source. In this belief they were not far at all from Catherine of Siena's ecstatic immersion in the blood of her God. Far more than she was aware, blood did, indeed, mark the chasm between medieval Jews and Christians, but those on both of its sides spoke a remarkably similar language. Moreover, Jews and Christians became increasingly aware of each other's beliefs and practices and turned these understandings—and, perhaps as often, misunderstandings—of the other into the stuff of polemics, which involved singularly violent language.
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The spiritual influence of St. Catherine of Siena (an Italian laywoman from the fourteenth century who is today a Doctor of the Church) has been increasing over the centuries. Her writings are now ...
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The spiritual influence of St. Catherine of Siena (an Italian laywoman from the fourteenth century who is today a Doctor of the Church) has been increasing over the centuries. Her writings are now available in critical editions in Italian, which have been translated into English and other languages. Among the many introductory works to Catherine’s life and spirituality, there was no monograph that would address discretion (or its synonym, prudence), a key concept of Catherine’s spiritual reflection that interacts with other crucial aspects of her teaching. This book aims to fill this gap. After summarizing the main traits of Catherine’s life, the book consists of four parts: a survey of how literary critics have reconciled Catherine’s illiteracy with the authenticity of her writings; an analysis of the main passages in which Catherine refers to discretion, prudence, and closely linked concepts; a historical comparison of Catherine’s thoughts and images on discretion and prudence with the earlier tradition (from Cassian to Gregory the Great, from Benedict to Richard of St. Victor, from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas), as well as her most significant contemporaries (Domenico Cavalca, Bridget of Sweden, John Colombini, Raymond of Capua); and a final part showing how discretion unifies Catherine’s spiritual reflection. The author’s general conclusions are followed by a summary bibliography in English, Italian, and French.Less
The spiritual influence of St. Catherine of Siena (an Italian laywoman from the fourteenth century who is today a Doctor of the Church) has been increasing over the centuries. Her writings are now available in critical editions in Italian, which have been translated into English and other languages. Among the many introductory works to Catherine’s life and spirituality, there was no monograph that would address discretion (or its synonym, prudence), a key concept of Catherine’s spiritual reflection that interacts with other crucial aspects of her teaching. This book aims to fill this gap. After summarizing the main traits of Catherine’s life, the book consists of four parts: a survey of how literary critics have reconciled Catherine’s illiteracy with the authenticity of her writings; an analysis of the main passages in which Catherine refers to discretion, prudence, and closely linked concepts; a historical comparison of Catherine’s thoughts and images on discretion and prudence with the earlier tradition (from Cassian to Gregory the Great, from Benedict to Richard of St. Victor, from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas), as well as her most significant contemporaries (Domenico Cavalca, Bridget of Sweden, John Colombini, Raymond of Capua); and a final part showing how discretion unifies Catherine’s spiritual reflection. The author’s general conclusions are followed by a summary bibliography in English, Italian, and French.
Susannah Crowder
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526106407
- eISBN:
- 9781526141989
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526106407.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Performing women takes on a key problem in the history of drama: the “exceptional” staging of the life of Catherine of Siena by a female actor and a female patron in 1468 Metz. These two creators ...
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Performing women takes on a key problem in the history of drama: the “exceptional” staging of the life of Catherine of Siena by a female actor and a female patron in 1468 Metz. These two creators have remained anonymous, despite the perceived rarity of this familiar episode; this study of their lives and performances brings the elusive figure of the female performer to center stage, however. Beginning with the Catherine of Siena play and broadening outward, Performing women integrates new approaches to drama, gender, and patronage with a performance methodology to trace connections among the activities of the actor, the patron, their female family members, and peers. It shows that the women of fifteenth-century Metz enacted varied kinds of performance that included and extended beyond the theater: decades before the 1468 play, for example, Joan of Arc returned from the grave in the form of a young woman named Claude, who was acknowledged formally in a series of civic ceremonies. This in-depth investigation of the full spectrum of evidence for female performance – drama, liturgy, impersonation, devotional practice, and documentary culture – both creates a unique portrait of the lives of individual women and reveals a framework of ubiquitous female performance. Performing women offers a new paradigm: women forming the core of public culture. Networks of gendered performance offered roles of expansive range and depth to the women of Metz, and positioned them as vital and integral contributors to the fabric of urban life.Less
Performing women takes on a key problem in the history of drama: the “exceptional” staging of the life of Catherine of Siena by a female actor and a female patron in 1468 Metz. These two creators have remained anonymous, despite the perceived rarity of this familiar episode; this study of their lives and performances brings the elusive figure of the female performer to center stage, however. Beginning with the Catherine of Siena play and broadening outward, Performing women integrates new approaches to drama, gender, and patronage with a performance methodology to trace connections among the activities of the actor, the patron, their female family members, and peers. It shows that the women of fifteenth-century Metz enacted varied kinds of performance that included and extended beyond the theater: decades before the 1468 play, for example, Joan of Arc returned from the grave in the form of a young woman named Claude, who was acknowledged formally in a series of civic ceremonies. This in-depth investigation of the full spectrum of evidence for female performance – drama, liturgy, impersonation, devotional practice, and documentary culture – both creates a unique portrait of the lives of individual women and reveals a framework of ubiquitous female performance. Performing women offers a new paradigm: women forming the core of public culture. Networks of gendered performance offered roles of expansive range and depth to the women of Metz, and positioned them as vital and integral contributors to the fabric of urban life.
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
As in Catherine discretion and prudence are synonyms, this chapter discusses the reflection by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the virtue of prudence. This treatment is important to elucidate further ...
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As in Catherine discretion and prudence are synonyms, this chapter discusses the reflection by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the virtue of prudence. This treatment is important to elucidate further Catherine’s concept of discretion and show the spiritual affinity between Catherine and Aquinas. It is also indicative of the fact that the inspiring principles of Aquinas’s doctrine may have reached Catherine through the Dominican environment with which she was familiar in Siena.Less
As in Catherine discretion and prudence are synonyms, this chapter discusses the reflection by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the virtue of prudence. This treatment is important to elucidate further Catherine’s concept of discretion and show the spiritual affinity between Catherine and Aquinas. It is also indicative of the fact that the inspiring principles of Aquinas’s doctrine may have reached Catherine through the Dominican environment with which she was familiar in Siena.
Heather Webb
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300153934
- eISBN:
- 9780300153941
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300153934.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book studies medieval notions of the heart to explore the “lost circulations” of an era when individual lives and bodies were defined by their extensions into the world rather than as ...
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This book studies medieval notions of the heart to explore the “lost circulations” of an era when individual lives and bodies were defined by their extensions into the world rather than as self-perpetuating, self-limited entities. Drawing from the works of Dante, Catherine of Siena, Boccaccio, Aquinas, and Cavalcanti, as well as other literary, philosophic, and scientific texts, the book reveals medieval answers to such fundamental questions as: Where is life located? Of what does it consist? Where does it begin? How does it end? Against the modern idea of the isolated self, the medieval heart provides a model for rethinking the body's relationship to the world it inhabits.Less
This book studies medieval notions of the heart to explore the “lost circulations” of an era when individual lives and bodies were defined by their extensions into the world rather than as self-perpetuating, self-limited entities. Drawing from the works of Dante, Catherine of Siena, Boccaccio, Aquinas, and Cavalcanti, as well as other literary, philosophic, and scientific texts, the book reveals medieval answers to such fundamental questions as: Where is life located? Of what does it consist? Where does it begin? How does it end? Against the modern idea of the isolated self, the medieval heart provides a model for rethinking the body's relationship to the world it inhabits.
Grazia Mangano Ragazzi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344512
- eISBN:
- 9780199346479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344512.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Having compared Catherine’s reflection with the earlier tradition, this chapter pushes the analysis one step further and analyzes the reflection on discretion and prudence found in authors who were ...
More
Having compared Catherine’s reflection with the earlier tradition, this chapter pushes the analysis one step further and analyzes the reflection on discretion and prudence found in authors who were closer in time to Catherine, namely, the Dominican friar Domenico Cavalca (whose Mirror of the Cross is regarded by some as one of the most important sources of Catherine’s thinking), Bridget of Sweden, John Colombini (a distant relative of Catherine), and Raymond of Capua (her confessor). This analysis brings to light certain analogies between these authors’ and Catherine’s reflection on discretion and prudence.Less
Having compared Catherine’s reflection with the earlier tradition, this chapter pushes the analysis one step further and analyzes the reflection on discretion and prudence found in authors who were closer in time to Catherine, namely, the Dominican friar Domenico Cavalca (whose Mirror of the Cross is regarded by some as one of the most important sources of Catherine’s thinking), Bridget of Sweden, John Colombini (a distant relative of Catherine), and Raymond of Capua (her confessor). This analysis brings to light certain analogies between these authors’ and Catherine’s reflection on discretion and prudence.
