‘Valued most highly and preserved most carefully’: Using saintly figures’ houses and memorabilia collections to campaign for their canonisation

Tine Van Osselaer

doi:10.1080/19369816.2018.1429097

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, I argue that the houses and memorabilia collections associated with venerated personages played an important role in campaigns to elevate popular, unofficial, saintly figures to the level of the blessed or even canonised saints. Two practices converged in these campaigns: the Catholic tradition of sacralising specific sites and endowing material remnants with special meaning, and the ‘museumification’ of memorial houses and collections. The focus here is on the use of material culture in the beatification campaigns for modern stigmatics (who carried the wounds of Christ). Of the hundreds of cases that were reported, only a few were beatified and canonised. The article concentrates primarily on one success story: the evolution of the German stigmatic Anne Catherine Emmerick (1774–1824) from a ‘living saint’ to her being officially blessed (2004) and the role that her houses and possessions played in the promotion of her cult following and image construction.

Highlights

No one is elevated to sainthood immediately after his or her death.[1]
I argue that the houses and memorabilia collections associated with venerated personages played an important role in campaigns to elevate popular, unofficial, saintly figures to the level of the blessed or even canonised saints
Two practices converged in these campaigns: the Catholic tradition of sacralising specific sites and endowing material remnants with special meaning, and the ‘museumification’ of memorial houses and collections

Summary

Introduction

No one is elevated to sainthood immediately after his or her death.[1]. It takes years before the process of beatification and canonisation starts; years during which the names of those who had once seemed so popular, so universally admired, can be forgotten. Propaganda concerning these saints-to-be.[3] This might be due to the fact that the material turn in Catholic historiography has been progressing since 1970–1980, it is still in its preliminary phases, as the majority of historians are still privileging texts in their reconstruction of the past.[4] I want to argue that the houses and memorabilia collections associated with venerated personages play an important role in campaigns to elevate popular, unofficial, saintly figures to the level of the blessed or even canonised saints. The goal of the first phase (from 1983 onwards in collaboration with staff of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints) was to provide sufficient material about the candidate - called ‘Servant of God’. This paper studies the use of material culture in the beatification campaigns for modern stigmatics. This story will be compared with less successful cases of stigmatics who did not gain official approval, but whose advocates seem to have used similar means in keeping their cults alive

Preserving memorabilia and sites – creating an image

Sites of prayer

By way of conclusion

Notes on contributor