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Vicarious Atonement

Frank Graziano

in Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima

Discusses how Rose of Lima, on the model of Christ, offered herself as a sacrificial victim to expiate the sins of natives, Spaniards, and Creoles in the New World. Rose of Lima’s patronage is ... More

Discusses how Rose of Lima, on the model of Christ, offered herself as a sacrificial victim to expiate the sins of natives, Spaniards, and Creoles in the New World. Rose of Lima’s patronage is explored in its relations to the Madonna of Mercy and other antecedents.Less

Republics Protected by God

Maurizio Viroli

in As If God Existed: Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy

This chapter focuses on the religious dimension of communes that emerged in northern and central Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The assemblies of citizens that gave birth to the ... More

This chapter focuses on the religious dimension of communes that emerged in northern and central Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The assemblies of citizens that gave birth to the communes gathered in churches. Even when public authorities built their own palaces, public council meetings were always preceded by religious ritual. Furthermore, the communes contributed to consecrating the city through paintings and sculptures of the saints, especially those patron saints who had defended the community from external or internal enemies, and hence had an explicitly civic meaning. The cities were religious, and so were the communes. The communes' religious identity and republicanism went hand in hand, and together engendered a republican religion.Less

Religion and the Community

in The Life Within: Local Indigenous Society in Mexico's Toluca Valley, 1650–1800

This chapter deals with the worship of patron saints and other nonhousehold saints, confraternities, ritual kinship, and funerals, all aspects of religion that, although often starting in the house, ... More

This chapter deals with the worship of patron saints and other nonhousehold saints, confraternities, ritual kinship, and funerals, all aspects of religion that, although often starting in the house, imply the participation of the community or corporate element. Toluca Valley testators express their devotion to a patron saint in various ways, but one aspect is common to the great majority of them: this devotion falls within the realm of the corporation, literally or figuratively, while the household remains the prerogative of the family saints, and the two realms are in some ways remarkably separate. The cofradías are considered from the point of view of individuals mentioning them in testaments, highlighting features different from those typical of the literature on sodalities. Ritual kinship is also seen through the lens of individual choices, and testaments identify some intriguing aspects of what being a compadre or comadre meant for the indigenous people of the Valley. Funerary practices reveal an interesting mixture of Spanish and indigenous traits, as well as some of the best examples of local habits and subregional variation. The chapter ends with some inquiry into the religious beliefs of the indigenous people of the Valley.Less

I Body Enshrined: The Bones of Mawlay Idrīs

Scott Kugle

in Sufis & Saints' Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality, and Sacred Power in Islam

This chapter analyzes a tomb shrine built over the long-dead but still-present body of the patron saint of Fās (the city of Fes, or Fez, Morocco) in the late fifteenth century (the beginning of the ... More

This chapter analyzes a tomb shrine built over the long-dead but still-present body of the patron saint of Fās (the city of Fes, or Fez, Morocco) in the late fifteenth century (the beginning of the early modern period). It explores how the bones of dead saints are pegs that secure the foundation of our human social world, acting as pivot points in time and space that establish a sacred order. The chapter notes that the tombs of saints and other relic shrines create “a privileged suspension of the flat tyranny of distance” in monotheistic societies, as pointed out by Peter Brown. It also explores the posthumuous legacy of one body, that of the saint–king of Morocco, Mawlay Idris al-Azhar, who founded the city of Fes.Less

Living Crosses

Leah Sarat

in Fire in the Canyon: Religion, Migration, and the Mexican Dream

This chapter examines religious and material change in El Alberto from Catholic perspectives. More specifically, it considers the transformation of El Alberto's patron saint festival and the ... More

This chapter examines religious and material change in El Alberto from Catholic perspectives. More specifically, it considers the transformation of El Alberto's patron saint festival and the emergence of a collective labor system that exists today. It explores the dilemma faced by Catholics and other non-evangelicals in El Alberto with respect to keeping their patron saint festival afloat in the face of the increasing number of people converting to Pentecostalism or leaving for the United States. It shows that the town's Catholics attribute socioeconomic development to a diverse combination of political and material causes, rather than religion. It explains how Catholics managed to retain the solidarity-building function of the traditional festivals by transferring it to the secular realm, as El Alberto's system of collective labor came to provide an infrastructure for community projects. The chapter concludes by focusing on how an ethic of collective participation made way for cooperation between Catholics and Protestants as they generate alternatives to migration.Less

The Twentieth-Century Joseph

William John Lyons

in Joseph of Arimathea: A Study in Reception History

This chapter examines Joseph's appearances in wider twentieth- and twenty-first-century Western culture. These include his place in church-related institutions and practices, including his role as a ... More

This chapter examines Joseph's appearances in wider twentieth- and twenty-first-century Western culture. These include his place in church-related institutions and practices, including his role as a patron saint for tin miners, tin workers, and funeral workers; fictional retellings of Joseph's own story, which reveal adjustments in both pre- and post-crucifixion Joseph lore; and two contrasting images of Joseph presented by author Phil Rickman in his The Chalice: A Glastonbury Ghost Story (1997). Joseph's appearances in cinema is examined through Brian Gilbert's The Gathering (2003), alongside the works of Pasolini and Zeffirelli, and the adventures of Indiana Jones. The development of a significant Joseph tradition as a spirit guide channelled by contemporary mediums in England is then considered. Finally, the chapter discusses recent scholarly exchanges about the possibility that Joseph never existed; and comments on the nature of the ‘real Joseph’, a shadowy historical figure who fades into insignificance when compared with his many vital presentations in reception history and who is powerless to force even all of biblical scholarship to acknowledge his presence.Less

Skating before Figures

James R. Hines

in Figure Skating in the Formative Years: Singles, Pairs, and the Expanding Role of Women

Today, skating on artificial ice in indoor rinks is a year-round recreational activity enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities as well as a sport both amateur and professional that enjoys ... More

Today, skating on artificial ice in indoor rinks is a year-round recreational activity enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities as well as a sport both amateur and professional that enjoys unprecedented popularity. But throughout most of its history, ice skating has been an activity limited to short seasons and possible only in countries where lakes, ponds, canals, or other bodies of water provide frozen surfaces on which skaters could enjoy the challenge and excitement of gliding across natural ice. In the ancient world, long before skating became a recreational activity or a sport, those same frozen surfaces provided a different kind of challenge. Passage over them was a necessity for survival during harsh winter months. This chapter traces the history of ice skating before the advent of competitive figure skating. It discusses mythology and the earliest skaters; the earliest skates; an early account of recreational skating; skating as a tool of warfare; figure skating's patron saint, the virgin Lydwina of Schiedam.Less

Imagining Communities

Judith Pollmann

in Memory in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800

Scholars of nationalism have argued that any national consciousness before 1800 was the province of small elites, who had little interest in engaging subjects in a national project, and lacked the ... More

Scholars of nationalism have argued that any national consciousness before 1800 was the province of small elites, who had little interest in engaging subjects in a national project, and lacked the technologies to do so. Highlighting the wide range of media available to early modern communities, this chapter argues that forms of national memory spread through the lively practice of local memory. Local memory practices, initially mostly associated with religious purposes, were used both to shape communal identities and to distinguish that community from other communities. They could be used to assert one’s importance to the larger world of region, state, kingdom, and nation, and conversely, rulers might forge a relationship with a community by becoming a stakeholder in a local memory culture. In this way notions of the national could spread and be used as a rhetorical tool in early modern society, without destroying alternative ways of thinking about the past, like the local.Less