The Devotion and Promotion of Stigmatics in Europe, C. 1800-1950 : Between Saints and Celebrities / Tine Van Osselaer [and three others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Osselaer, Tine, author.

Series:

Numen numerus ; Volume 167.

Numen Book Series ; Volume 167

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fame--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Fame.

Stigmatics--Europe--Public opinion.

Stigmatics.

Stigmatization--Social aspects--Europe.

Stigmatization.

Europe--Religious life and customs--History--19th century.

Europe.

Europe--Religious life and customs--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Brill 2020

Leiden, The Netherlands : Koninklijke Brill NV, [2021]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the nineteenth century a new type of mystic emerged in Catholic Europe. While cases of stigmatisation had been reported since the thirteenth century, this era witnessed the development of the 'stigmatic': young women who attracted widespread interest thanks to the appearance of physical stigmata. To understand the popularity of these stigmatics we need to regard them as the 'saints' and religious 'celebrities' of their time. With their 'miraculous' bodies, they fit contemporary popular ideas (if not necessarily those of the Church) of what sanctity was. As knowledge about them spread via modern media and their fame became marketable, they developed into religious 'celebrities'.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

1 Stigmatics

Tine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi and Kristof Smeyers,

in collaboration with Andrea Graus

1 Introduction

2 Tracing Stigmata

3 The Invention of "Stigmatics"

4 Building Blocks

2 Saints and Celebrities

Tine Van Osselaer

1 Saints in the Spotlight

2 The Scale of Fame: Transnational and Comparative Approach

3 Religious Celebrities

4 An Interactive Approach

3 On Stigmata, Suffering and Sanctity

1 Theodor Nolde's Visit

2 The "Spectacle" of the Holy Wounds

3 The Meaning of Suffering

4 The Effect of Suffering on the Visitors

4 Visiting Stigmatics and Their Promotion from the Ground Up The Devotees, the Unofficial Movements and the Episcopate in France

Andrea Graus

1 French Stigmatics and Visitors' Expectations

2 Inside the Fridays of Passion

3 The Diocesan Response to the Visits

4 The Visitors' Unofficial Movements

5 Conclusions

5 Selling Sensation, Creating Sanctity The Visual and Material Culture of "Stigmatics"

1 In the Public Eye

2 Commerce and Devotion

3 Capturing Corporeal Mysticism

4 Creativity after Death

6 Stigmatics, Politics and the Law On Fake Stigmata and "Self-styled" Sanctity in Spain and France

1 Stigmatics and Political Symbolism

2 Sor Patrocinio, Rosette Tamisier and the "Two Spains/Frances"

3 The Law and the Public Debunking of Stigmatics

4 Fake Stigmata and Self-styled Sanctity in the Anticlerical Press

7 Stigmatized Blood in the Vatican Courts Religious Response and Strategy

Leonardo Rossi

1 Introduction: An Ambiguous Relationship

2 The Vatican Perspective

3 Examining Stigmatics

4 Conclusions

8 Conclusion

1 A Visible Type

2 New Types and the Scale of Their Circulation

3 Suggestions for Further Research

Bibliography

Biographical Dictionary of Stigmatics

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-43935-8

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004439351 DOI

Access Restriction:

Unrestricted online access