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This chapter traces the history and meanings of three important cultural artifacts related to St. Francis: the hymn, “All Creatures of our God and King”; the “Prayer of St. Francis,” or “Peace Prayer,” which begins “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”; and garden statues representing St. Francis with birds, often incorporating birdbaths. All had beginnings in the early twentieth century, emerged into the public eye in the 1920s, were widely known by 1940, and have remained popular. Non-Christians have adopted the prayer and the garden figures. Drawing on scholarship in music, garden and landscape history, and material religion, the chapter reflects on practices and meanings associated with these familiar items.

Francis's fascination with poverty as a spiritual discipline is nowhere better illustrated than in the allegory, the Sacred Commerce of St. Francis and Lady Poverty, which appears to have been written about a decade after the saint's death. In the Sacred Commerce, Francis is depicted as a suitor to Lady Poverty, the personification of the perfect poverty that Francis spent his life pursuing. Borrowing tropes from the biblical books of the Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Wisdom, as well as from chivalric romance, the author used the courtship of Francis and Lady Poverty as a way of underscoring the threats posed to religious orders like the Franciscans by the enticements of Lady Poverty's rival, Greed.

The New Madrid earthquakes have been regarded as without consequence: they shook but did not change human lives. Newly-discovered probate records, along with environmental and cartographic evidence, demonstrate how they mattered. The New Madrid earthquakes helped destroy a thriving New Madrid hinterland, a multi-ethnic zone of commerce and communication created since the 1780s between New Madrid, Missouri and Arkansas Post, Arkansas, based around the St. Francis River, a Mississippi River tributary that functioned as a main waterway of the middle Mississippi Valley. The New Madrid quakes destroyed the clear channel of the St. Francis River and created the “sunk lands,” destroying the New Madrid hinterland. Early western Cherokee settlers moved further west, multi-ethnic Indian villages dispersed, and the St. Francis became the depopulated morass that later American settlers would take as the region’s original state. The New Madrid earthquakes reveal a new Native American history of the middle Mississippi Valley.

This chapter presents an argument for the claim that there are things to know that cannot be known as well or at all apart from narratives. For this purposes, the chapter uses hagiographical stories of the lives of St. Francis and St. Dominic, so that Francis and Dominic can serve as types of different modes of knowledge and different modes of the transfer of knowledge. It argues that certain fundamental assumptions in contemporary epistemology need to be altered or supplemented in order to take account of the knowledge of persons. It extends the distinction between the two kinds of knowledge at issue to analogous cases of desire, emotion, and memory, among other things.

The central focus in the sixth chapter is the “Solemn Exposition” of 1952 since it represents the last in a series of commemorations of this saint's biography—fittingly, a commemoration of (Xavier's) death exactly four hundred years earlier in 1552— staged on the part of the Estado da Índia as it faced its own imminent "death." It was staged during a time when the Portuguese were increasingly put on the defensive about their ethical right to maintain Goa as an "overseas province" in the midst of a newly independent Indian nation-state(1947). While this momentous event easily rivalled the one in 1859—the subject of my last chapter— in terms of expense and design, I will suggest that in tone and character, this particular solemnity staged in 1952 was markedly different, given not only the set of political and economic conditions under which it was organized, but because of the material and discursive force—commemoration—framing this set of ritual practices.

The second chapter traces the actual and written journey to sainthood of Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier(1506-1552), from his death and initial interment on the island of Sancian(1552), to his translation to Malacca(1553), to the elaborate celebrations surrounding the arrival of his body in Goa(1554), and lastly, to his process of canonization(1556-1622). The period between Xavier's death in 1552 and his canonization in 1622 can also be characterized as one in which Xavier's corpse was handled in an odd assortment of ways by church and state officials alike; he was interred three times and disinterred twice, alternately treated poorly and with respect, exuded a wholeness, freshness, and fragrant smell, spurted blood, was subject to numerous act of religious devotion and relic productions, medical exams and amputations, and by the end was missing a toe and an arm. However, these corporeal details are not without significance, rather they intimate the connections between the European practice of translating a saint's relics and Portuguese colonial state-building processes in 16th century Asia.

Preserving biodiversity is a task for humans endorsed by the second biblical account of creation, which highlights four points: the infinite God and finite humans can understand one another, humans exercise dominion over all creation, both God and human beings like beautiful things, Adam and Eve can eat the fruit of all trees in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God loves and trusts Adam and Eve to make good use of the world. The “dominion” that man and woman exercise should preserve the goods of creation for future generations. According to the Bible, humans should not despoil the land by robbing it of its ability to support life. By seeking wisdom, humans can understand how the world works, how it reveals God, and how it should be preserved. Environmental studies tells us four important things: ecosystems are interactive, humans can have bad effects on ecosystems, life is competitive, and human ingenuity often discovers new energy sources. Three Catholic approaches to the environment are solidarity with creation, deference to most life forms, and common ownership of the environment over all generations. Common to the approaches are God as the source and the beauty of creation.

After the destruction of the Natchez in 1730, French Colonial authorities and their Indian allies considered the Chickasaw Nation the greatest threat to life and commerce in the mid-continent. A complex, multi-component expedition mounted to neutralize Chickasaw influence brought together French military forces, colonial militia from the St. Lawrence, Illinois, and Louisiana settlements, and Indian allies from more than 20 tribes on the Mississippi River in 1739. Although the Second French–Chickasaw War, as it is called, did not produce the military solution that colonials sought, the unprecedented multicultural gathering offers a rare opportunity for archaeological inquiry.

This chapter considers the role of dance in the cult of the saints, tracing the evolution of dance vis-à-vis sanctity and cultic worship. For some saints, dancing became part of their iconic image. Within the context of saintly devotion, dance helped to induce conversion, animate miracles, and promote social cohesion. Insights from performance theory help conceptualize the connection between death and dancing bodies. The first section explores the cult, relics, and reliquary of Sainte Foy, who imbued sacred dance with a significance that was at once regional and international, religious and political. The second section examines the hagiographies of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis—as a prancing preacher, jongleur saint, and living phantom—authorized a new spirituality that diverged from mainstream monasticism, yet bore the mark of apostolic, authentic piety.

In 1624 the Estado da Índia and the Society of Jesus jointly staged a reception to honour Francis Xavier's recent papal canonization (1622), a celebration that was markedly different from the small reception held in 1554 to honour the arrival of his "incorrupt" corpse in Goa from Sancian via Malacca. The third chapter develops a discourse and materiality of Goa Dourada by situating the eyewitness testimonies of two ritual participants (one Italian, the other Portuguese) within a larger historical context, as well as those of a multitude of European travellers who flocked to Portuguese India, often described as a "Rome in India" throughout the seventeenth century, Xavier's "miraculous" corpse a recently featured attraction. The focus is on how ritualization provides an arena in which colonial and Jesuit officials promote their respective and collective strengths through the success of Xavier's canonization. However, because of the colonial state's increasingly evident decline, ritual simultaneously serves as a point of distraction from its visible signs of decline, decadence and decay. The spectacle of canonization then turns the focus away from this saint’s corporeality towards his accoutrements in much the same manner that Goa itself had been "dressed up" for this special occasion.

The fourth chapter explores the ritual contours of Xavier’s “First Solemn Exposition” which was staged in 1782. It addresses the increasing "secularization" of Xavier as he becomes a symbol and agent of colonial state authority in the midst of escalated tensions between the Estado da Índia and the Society of Jesus operating in Goa, including parallel concerns over the physical deterioration of Xavier's corpse—its state of "desiccation"—, and which culminates in the expulsion of this religious order in 1759. The role of official and unofficial documentation in both serving and disrupting church and state doctrine is detailed. In many ways, these acts of communication—the bequeathing of titles, monies, and vestments, and the various prohibitions against opening Xavier's casket—are indexical of differing investments in the corpse of St. Francis Xavier on the part of colonial officials and Jesuit missionaries, as well as anxieties concerning their respective positions (and positionings) throughout the 18^th century.

This chapter considers Claire Bishop’s critique of Goat Island’s final performance called The Lastmaker (2007-9), in which she accused it of failing to be contemporary. It examines a particular scene in which Mark Jeffery impersonates queer British comedian Larry Grayson in the guise of St. Francis of Assisi, and thinks critically about the extent to which minoritarian subjects are able to claim some part of the now.

This chapter covers the timeframe from the early period of Christianity, all the way to the years that immediately followed the Renaissance. The discussion is divided into four main sections: the New Testament and human welfare, St Augustine, St Francis, and St Thomas Aquinas. It is noted that this period was dominated by the ideas of churchmen, who viewed individuals and their problems using a Church perspective.

Ritual practice in 1859 continued the Portuguese pattern of staging "Solemn Expositions" that had been initiated in 1782 amidst circulating rumours that Xavier's corpse had been removed by members of the Society of Jesus in the aftermath of their expulsion from Goa in 1759. However, seventy-seven years later, ritual was no longer about securing this saint's location in Goa—the keys to his casket that had been so carefully guarded throughout the 18^th century first by the Jesuits and then by colonial officials were now inexplicably lost and the "management" of his corpse less a concern for the Estado da Índia, which was now experiencing even more acutely its own precarious position in Goa. The fifth chapter explores the ritual dimensions of the "Second Solemn Exposition" of 1859 that was staged in the face of a ruinous state that was increasingly uncertain about the longevity of its colonial rule given the dominating and competing presence of the British in India, and their slow but steady encroachment upon this Portuguese colony throughout the 19^th century.

In the semi-arid environment of California, dams play a vital role in the regional economy. By capturing flood flow, large reservoirs help foster maximum use of limited water resources. But the failure of large dams can wreak tremendous havoc and kill hundreds of people. As engineers innovated with dam designs in the early twentieth century there also came state regulatory regimes intended to protect citizens from unsafe structures. This chapter considers how two types of dams—concrete gravity and multiple arch—were treated by state regulatory authorities and how rules and routines were used in creating and evaluating designs. The role of “psychology” is given special attention in this analysis, providing a revealing counterpoint to the notion that Progressive Era engineering was founded solely on the application of mathematical formulas.

Flagler organized his hotel and railroad into an integrated “system” for efficiency. His railroad took the name Florida East Coast Railway. In 1896, St. Augustine opened a bridge to Anastasia Island. In the meantime, Flagler began laying track to Miami and arrived there in 1896, building a hotel that would be called the Royal Palm. In 1897, Flagler opened the Hotel Key West. During this busy period, Flagler donated land for the Ancient City Baptist Church in St. Augustine and also attempted to keep the Army's St. Francis Barracks there open. Ultimately, though, the Army pulled out. Ida Alice Flagler seemed to recover her sanity but then relapsed and was permanently institutionalized. St. Augustine's streets began to be paved with brick. John M. Schofield became a prominent winter resident. Mary Lily Kenan returned to St. Augustine. William Jennings Bryan spoke in St. Augustine and was injured in a fall.

Taking its lead from St. Francis of Assisi, this essay elaborates the theme of the “debt garment,” one that offers both the promise of recognition—that of one’s worldly belongingness to all other humans and nonhumans—and the threat of burdens that crush some more harshly than others, but whose weight all must carry. In a semi-secular-theological turn, the essay contends that credit/debt relationships make and unmake worlds. Threading together insights from a patchwork assemblage of sources, including M. T. Anderson’s YA novel Feed, current advancements in “wearable” technologies, St. Francis, Parrika, Benjamin, Nietzsche, Deleuze and Guattari (to name but a few), the essay explores the ethological and ecological web of debt and ultimately proffers an aesthetics of debt, whereby debt becomes not merely a garment worn, but both a gesture of promise for, and a threat to, other worlds.

The rediscovery of the charismatic dimension of the Church in the first two chapters of Lumen Gentium has been distorted or neglected after Vatican II, but Newman, both as an Anglican and a Catholic, was very conscious of its importance. He well understood the immense significance for the Church of figures like St Benedict, St Francis, St Dominic, and St Ignatius Loyola. As the leader of the Oxford Movement, which involved both clergy and laity, and as the founder of the Oratory of St Philip, whose origins he well understood, Newman would have appreciated the significance of the rise of the ecclesial movements and communities, which exemplify the ecclesiology of the communion of the baptized which Lumen Gentium sets out and which he himself had learned from the Greek Fathers.

This chapter returns to some quotations which appear at the head of the book. These texts are taken from David Hume, Henry Vaughan, William James, and Thomas of Celano’s Life of St Francis, and they all concern the role of sensory experience in the spiritual life. This discussion aims to show how the themes of the book enable us to see in what sense each of these quotations may be affirmed, and in what sense they perhaps need qualification or elaboration.