Cult Of Saints Research Articles

From Text to Relics: The Emergence of the Scribe-Martyr in Late Antique Christianity (Fourth Century–Seventh Century)

Abstract: This paper delves into the conflation of two prominent figures of authority in the early Christian world: the scribe-scholar and the martyr. While previous scholarship has largely examined these figures separately, this study focuses on their association and argues that they were meaningfully combined to establish a new form of textual authority. The motif of the scribe-martyr is explored in a series of Christian texts, from Pseudo-Pionius to John Moschus and late ancient hagiographic texts, tracing its origins to the fourth century. This development emerged from the growing association between the authority of written texts as physical objects and the rise of the cult of saints and their relics. In parallel with Foucault’s concept of the author-function, a distinct Christian “scribe-function” emerged within this context, i.e., discourses of authority, fictitious or historical, involving the individuals who reproduced or corrected texts. The paper posits that the motif of the scribe-martyr was then strategically employed in legal, scholarly, and institutional contexts to express faithfulness, resistance, authorization, and legitimation. As a result, this conflation contributed significantly to the attribution of holiness and authority to texts, sacred places, and religious institutions. Thus, the scribe-martyr, connected to the revered relic-texts, assumed a particularly potent role as a figure of theological authority within late ancient Christianity.

The Cult of Saints (Awliya) and Pilgrims in Social Networks (Based on the Materials of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia)

The Cult of Saints (Awliya) and Pilgrims in Social Networks (Based on the Materials of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia)

En angelsaksisk steinkirke på opphavsstedet til Norges tidligste helgenkult? Nye spor funnet på Selja - St Sunnivas og Seljemennenes helligdom

The island Selja on the Norwegian West coast is the alleged martyr site of the saints of St Sunniva and the Seljumen, who according to the legend lived and died in the 10th century. The concentration of ruins on the island reveals the importance of the site during the Middle Ages which was closely connected to the legend of saints. The site shows the remains of a bishop’s church, a Benedictine abbey, a rockshelter chapel and a terrace complex in the hillside. The additional ruins of a pilgrim’s church which stand in front of the rockshelter, have now been investigated in relation to an ongoing conservation. The investigation has revealed unknown traces of an early building phase in the pilgrim’s church, which is interpreted as a stone chapel constructed before the episcopal see was established at Selja c.1068-70. Previously undocumented architectural features indicate Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship, which is further supported by the site’s historical context. The article further argues that this unusual early stone chapel must be the result of impulses from across the North Sea, at a time when Anglo Saxon priests and Christian conceptions were brought with the efforts of conversion and royal conquest. It also discusses what it meant for the development of cult of saints on the island and Selja as a holy site.

Агиографические источники, связанные с культом святых Медарда и Гильдарда

Introduction. Four hagiographical texts about St. Medard of Soissons, two about Eleutherius of Tournai, and one each about Gildard of Rouen, Evodius of Rouen, Bandarid of Soissons, and Laud of Coutances have survived. All of them are connected with the cult of Sts. Medard and Gildard, who, in later tradition, came to be erroneously called brothers. Methods and materials. The study was carried out on the basis of critical, historicalgenetic and biographical methods. Analysis. The results of the critical analysis of the mentioned monuments allowed us to conclude that all of them differ in the time of their creation and the value of the information reflected in them, describing the life and activity of these holy bishops of the Merovingian era. Several texts were already created at the turn of the 6th – 7th centuries by the famous hagiographer Venantius Fortunatus. They can be important sources both for the reconstruction of the real biography of St. Medard and for the study of the history of the Merovingian period. The other texts were created later (in the Carolingian period and during the Classical Middle Ages), and the information about Medard and his time, added by their authors to the facts already known from Merovingian hagiography, does not represent historical value for the 6th century. Results. On the example of these monuments, it is possible to trace a characteristic change in the function of hagiography, when the Merovingian texts, compiled to glorify the cult of the saint, are replaced by hagiographies, the creation of which is connected with the confirmation of the land claims of the church in the 9th century, with the struggle around the united church of Noyon and Tournai, unfolding in the 11th – 12th centuries, as well as with the development of the myth about the kinship of Medard and Gildard, and so on. The mentioned phenomenon reflects some peculiarities of the appeal to the cults of Merovingian saints in different epochs, in particular the change of the purposes of creating their hagiographies in accordance with the requirements of the time.

Saints and Celebrities

This article offers a pedagogical approach to introducing undergraduate students to hagiology by comparing medieval sanctity to modern celebrity. The bodies of saints and celebrities are important loci for the transmission of sanctity or celebrity from a person to the public and for the continuity of identity. Examples include St. Faith, St. Cuthbert, Kim Kardashian, and Marilyn Monroe. Using a comparative method allows students who are non-religious to better apprehend the unfamiliar practices and beliefs around the cult of saints and relics.

Religion and persecution

AbstractThis paper investigates the relationship between local religiosity and episodes of persecutions in Europe between 1100 and 1850. We introduce a novel proxy for measuring local religion: the cult of saints in early Western Christianity. Our findings show that cities with an established cult of a saint are 11% points more likely to engage in Jewish persecutions and witch trials. However, cities with more progressive gender norms, measured by the presence of a female saint cult, are less likely to persecute witches compared to male-only saint cities. Our baseline relationship persists after controlling for a range of city-level economic, geographic and institutional characteristics and after accounting for other major confounders. Suggestive evidence points towards two mechanisms behind the saints-persecution relationship: (i) changes in norms induced by longer exposure to Christianity; and (ii) proximity of religious groups due to congruence of religious festivities.

Making Saints, Making Selves: Narrative, Rhetoric, and Agency in the Diocesan Inquest into Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1414–1415)

AbstractDrawing on the witness statements compiled as part of the fifteenth-century diocesan inquest petitioning for the canonization of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1331–1414), a French holy woman and mystic, this paper argues that the inquisitorial process of saint-making offered an opportunity for deponents to make use of authoritative legal spaces for their own social and religious ends, and that through their use of rhetorical and narrative devices, deponents could use this contact with institutional mechanisms to perform acts of self-construction and self-authorization, over and above the formal requirements of the process. Through an examination the statements of two witnesses – one a canon of the Basilica of St Martin, and the other a bourgeoise laywoman – this paper illustrates that deponents could make use of a wide range of narrative strategies, from deploying the evidence of gossip to negotiate their own social position, to rhetorically crafting their own experiences in order to comment on and establish their own piety and devotion. The use of these strategies highlights the complexity of the interaction between individuals and institutions, and the multiple possibilities that were enabled by engagement with the machinery of the cult of saints.

The cult of saints in religious orders: the example of the Congregation of the Felician Sisters

In every order or monastic congregation a group of ‘favourite’ saints can be selected. The reasons differ. Most often the foremost place goes to the congregation’s founder or founders. It should be emphasized that in a number of orders, monastic congregations, monasteries, or abbeys the cult is given to benefactors and founders not formally canonized by the Church. The other group of saints venerated with a particular cult in congregations are those recognised as patrons or protectors of their congregations and saints and beatified coming from the ranks of their order. In the history of the Congregation o f the Sisters o f Saint Felix o f Cantalice Third Order Regular o f Saint Francis o f Assisi we can clearly see the care of the cult of a number of saints and beatified who in a distinctive way affected the Congregation’s spirituality and activity. First the founders of the Congregation, Blessed Honorat Koźmiński (1826-1916) and Blessed Mother Angela Truszkowska (1825— 1899), should be mentioned. From the beginning of its existence the Congregation was deeply rooted in Franciscan spirituality. The Congregation was established after approval by sisters of the Tertiary Order of Saint Francis of Assisi. It should not come as a surprise that in monasteries of the Felician Sisters the cult of Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and also of Saint Clare (1194-1253) was cherished with great popularity. The Saint to whom the Felician Sisters owe their name is Saint Felix of Cantalice (1515-1587), while in a special way the Congregation was entrusted to the care of Saint Joseph and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Maģiskās glābšanas stāsti par svētās Agatas brīnumiem Stirnienes draudzē

In a small north-western Latgale community, Stirniene parish of St. Lawrence, personal experience narratives that highlight folk Christianity have been documented during the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. In these narratives, supernatural aid and miraculous salvation in crucial situations are frequently occurring motifs. The cult of saints has a significant role in Latgalian folk Christianity, and these narratives reveal the deep roots of one of the most popular cults of saints – the worship of Saint Agatha in Stirniene parish. Saint Agatha is the patron saint for fire and other disasters. On Saint Agatha’s Day – the 5th of February – bread, water, and salt are consecrated in Catholic churches in Latvia; these items are believed to prevent fire, cure humans and livestock animals, and protect against supernatural evil powers. The coexistence and interlapping of Christian and folk worldviews are presented in the paper, showing the appreciation of the sacramentalia consecrated on this day (bread, water, salt) and exposing the testimonies of miraculous aid through the use of such sacramentalia. Despite the profound political, economic, and cultural changes of the 20th century, and especially of the prohibition of religious practices during the Soviet occupation, it can be concluded that Saint Agatha’s Day traditions persevere both in older and younger generations. The corpus of personal experience narratives collected in Stirniene presents the miraculous salvation stories connected to Saint Agatha’s sacramentalia, thus displaying the continuity of the traditional worldview and values of the informants. The variety of different individual approaches to using Saint Agatha’s bread and water is characterised. The biographical method has been used in the research.

Некоторые особенности исламской культуры Хорезма в эпоху Золотой Орды

Research objective: To analyze the features of the Islamic culture of Khwarezm and the role of the Turkic languages in the dissemination of Islamic knowledge. Research materials: The article is based on information from various written sources and publications of Russian, Kazakh, Turkish source scholars and historians that shed light on the role of the Turkic languages in the religious culture of Khwarezm in the Golden Horde period. Results and scientific novelty: As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that in Khwarezm, Islam was represented by various practices manifested in the organization of rituals, Mutazilism, Sufi teachings, and the cult of saints. In the pre-Golden Horde period, the Muslim written culture of the region was dominated by the Arabic, Persian, and Khwarezmian languages. From the middle of the 13th century, Turkic writings appeared in dictionaries, and from the 14th century, religious literature appeared in the Turkic language. The main settled centers of the Turkic languages of the Ulus Jochi were Volga Bulgaria, Khwarezm, and the Syrdarya territories. The close interaction of the Turkic-speaking peoples of these territories, coupled with the policy of a certain part of the political elite to support the use of Turkic languages, manifested itself in the growth in the number of works in Turkic languages and the beginning of the formation of a single Turkic literary language. In this complex process, Khwarezm played the role of repeating the Arab-Persian cultural traditions with the participation of a certain local Turkic component. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that, based on the analysis of sources and existing research, one can assume the development of the religious culture of Khwarezm based on the Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages, which is confirmed by the increase in the number of works of a religious nature, the translation of the Holy Quran into the Turkic language, and the deve­lopment of Turkic religious terminology.

Anthropological Aspects of Local Cults: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Studying Religious Sites of Memory

The article deals with theoretical approaches to the analysis of anthropological aspects of religious places of memory associated with the veneration of Christian saints. This form of religious practice is often a kind of refraction of a dogmatically formalized official religious system, passed through the prism of traditional beliefs, sometimes of archaic origin, in which the objects of worship are both officially fixed material objects (icons, sometimes sculptural images of saints or Mother-of-God, worship crosses), and unofficial locally revered shrines, including springs, stones, trees, and even landscapes. The author analyzes essentialist and non-essentialist theories used to interpret local cults of saints associated with the veneration of natural objects: the theory of dual faith (dvoeverie) and “Orthodox animism”, folk religion, lived religion, vernacular religion, material religion. The most successful methodological approach to explain the historical and cultural survival of religious places of memory, according to the author, is the actor-network theory of B. Latour. Being a non-essentialist approach, the actor-network theory does not distinguish between different types of actors: people, natural objects, and supernatural actors. Natural objects create a network between pilgrims and supernatural actors, which manifests itself in direct worship practices, an important element of which are appropriate votive offerings. Natural actors carry out the function of mediation between the worlds, connecting a person with a supernatural actor who is constantly invisibly present in a sacred place, and thus a network is built that has an important psychological significance for believers, thereby determining the social significance of religious places of memory.

Культ святых и паломнические традиции у народов Волго-Уральского региона в досоветское время

The history and culture of the holy sites in the Volga-Ural region remains an underdeveloped topic in ethnological science. The introduction of new written sources into scientific circulation and a secondary analysis of the works of Russian and foreign researchers can help in solving this problem. The article aims to systematise and analyse information about the cult of saints and pilgrimage traditions among the peoples of the Volga-Ural region in the pre-Soviet period. The belonging of holy sites to certain peoples has become the main principle of the distribution of information. Its use showed the need to single out a separate group of data that reveals the syncretism of holy sites among the Volga-Ural peoples. The collected corpus of materials made it possible to identify the main places of worship in the region, pilgrimage traditions, the attitude of national and religious elites towards sacred objects, and the nature of public discussions. The authors believe that when studying the cult of saints, it is important to take into account the essence of "holiness" and the ideas about it among individual peoples, the system of its maintenance – oral and written heritage, ritual and ceremonial culture. The nature of the worship of holy sites in the context of intercultural contacts in the Volga-Ural region is of great importance.

Green Color of the Facades of Orthodox Churches of the Podlaskie Voivodeship in the Context of Sacred Architecture and Theology

The purpose of this article is to present interdisciplinarily the connection between architecture and theology. The research was conducted using manuscript sources (inventory cards of architectural and construction monuments from the collections of the Provincial Monument Protection Office in Białystok), printed materials, as well as subject literature and internet sources. Photographic inventories of the sacred objects were carried out, as well as conversations with clergymen. The aim of the research was to verify the hypothesis that theology has a significant impact on shaping the architecture of Orthodox churches. Symbolism in the architecture of churches encompasses many aspects, including the color scheme of the facades. The Podlaskie Voivodeship has the largest number of Orthodox churches in Poland. These areas are associated with wooden architecture due to the easy availability of raw materials. The attribute of wooden Orthodox churches in this area is the variety of colors on their facades.
 Colors have a rich theological symbolism that is often associated with the cult of saints. It is particularly visible in icons. The study covered seven green churches in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, in the towns of Anusin, Koźliki, Narew, Pasynki, Trześcianka, and Tyniewicze Duże. Among the studied objects, one is currently green, and the others had this feature in the past. The temples were described in terms of dating, plan shape, and facade color occurrence. The research showed a connection between the green color of the facade and its theological symbolism. An architect of an ideal temple analogous to those included in the study should combine the art of aesthetic design with the principles of theology. The synergy of architecture and theology is necessary in such objects, and thanks to it, they are beautiful.

Holy medicine: Patron saints of wounds due to animal bites

The cult (system of religious beliefs and rituals) of saints in Western Europe appeared in the 3rd century CE and gained momentum from the 4th to the 6th centuries. Its importance for European society in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages was undeniable; holy medicine was the only hope for sick people because the number of physicians was insufficient, and usually physicians were helpless in the face of most of the ailments that plagued society at that time. The number of saints had increased over the years, and people sought medical help from them through prayer and other religious practices. Some saints “specialized” in the treatment of various wounds, including skin diseases. Our research revealed many saints who were patrons of wounds and skin. They can be collected in three groups: patron saints against snakebites and dog bites; patron saints of the treatment of wounds, ulcers, burns, and frostbite; and patron saints against spreadable diseases such as ergotism, leprosy, and scabies. The large number of saints who were patrons against snakebites and dog bites shows the relevance and importance of the problem. In our research, we tried to find out whether the cult of saints led to the development of hospitals for the treatment of skin diseases like ergotism in the hospital of Brother St. Anthony or only in miracles of healing emphasizing the power of faith in the cure of diseases.

Holy day in a holy place: space, time, and annual miracles in late antique hagiography and the cult of saints

Holy day in a holy place: space, time, and annual miracles in late antique hagiography and the cult of saints

How Holy War became Unholy

Abstract The Livonian war in the second half of the 16th century was understood by its participants within the Christian Providentialist discourse and was seen primarily through the optics of Christian ethics (the idea of sin and its punishment, the idea of ‘God’s penalty’ which every person has to pay as a potential sinner by undergoing pain and trials, the idea of retribution and reward for feats and sins, etc.). Since the war coincided with the aggravation of religious confrontations in the region (Catholics vs Protestants, the Orthodox vs Catholics and Protestants amongst themselves), there were attempts to turn the conflict into something bigger than a war over territories and political ambitions. But the idea of a religious war failed. For Europeans, the religious factor in the Livonian conflict had very little symbolic expression. No cults of Livonian saints, martyrs for the faith, etc. emerged. For the Orthodox Church a number of significant religious and propagandistic actions were organized at the beginning of the war (‘the Narva miracle,’ creation of hagiographic monuments, etc.) that glorified the victory of the Orthodox Cross and Russian arms. However, as the conflict developed, the significance of these actions faded and was reduced to local memory objects. The defense of Pskov from King Stephen Bathory in 1581 was the most resonant and significant event. Its image was embodied in many objects of both local and all-Russian historical memory, which retain their importance to the present day.

(Non-)declared Crusade against pseudo-Apostles: the forgotten "saints" of the Ordo Apostolorum

The history of the pseudo-Apostles movement has come down to our time in the presentation of those who defeated them. The personalities of Gerard Segarelli and Fra Dolcino, the leaders of the pseudo-Apostles movement, can also be considered from the perspective of the presence of elements inherent in the lifetime cult of saints in the dogmatic Christian understanding, which are similar to the worship cults formed around the leaders of religious associations in the XIII-XIV centuries.

«ИСТИННЫЕ» И «ЛОЖНЫЕ»ЧУДЕСА ГЛАЗАМИ ЦЕРКОВНЫХ АВТОРОВ: ГРАНИЦЫ СРЕДНЕВЕКОВОЙ ВЕРЫ В ЧУДО

Since the Reformation, the cult of saints and their relics has been heavily criticized as a deception of selfish priests. But is it true that all the things which from the modern point of view should be regarded as deception, i.e. conscious deviation from the truth, were seen as the same in medieval polemics? The article discusses where the boundary between the truth and the falsification (falsitas) lies in the sphere of medieval piety. Analyzing lives of saints, texts about the veneration of relics and sacred objects, and accounts of miracles, the author shows that in the medieval religious worldview “truth” was warranted not by experience but by the transcendence. That’s why such modern concepts as “falsification” and “gullibility” are fraught with anachronism. In the Middle Ages, the boundary between “truth” and “deception” did not lie where it lies now. The notion of truth itself was relative and the views of the clerics and ordinary people could differ. On the one hand, the whole medieval hagiography lay beyond the field of “true” / “false”, since accounts of exploits and miracles performed by the saints, which we consider today to be literary fiction, were an integral part of religious faith and a form of piety, and thus did not give rise to suspicion. On the other hand, the official Church considered miracles performed by self-proclaimed saints or heretics to be a “deception” and warned against honoring “false saints”. A single and unambiguous concept of “deception” did not exist in the medieval Christian piety. The researcher must therefore distinguish deception aimed at practical benefits (for example, the forging of relics) from unintentional deception (delusion, fiction) or cheating with a godly aim (pia fraus).

Интеллигенция и Церковь: вопрос о соотношении идейного и духовного в лидерстве (конец XIX – начало XX в.)

The question of the relationship between the intelligentsia and the Church in Russia during the period of large-scale socio-economic and political changes at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries (including the February Revolution of 1917) is considered. The relevance of the study is determined by the recent appearance of works devoted to the perception of the intelligentsia in the church environment. At the same time, the ideas of the intelligentsia about the Church in the scientific literature have not yet been fully disclosed. The study is based on journalism, office work (materials of the Religious-Philosophical Meetings and the St. Petersburg Religious-Philosophical Society), periodicals, and sources of personal origin. It is concluded that during this period, the intelligentsia in its own environment was already considered as a project parallel to the Church, which inevitably endowed the intelligentsia itself with the appropriate features (messiahism, sacrifice, eschatology, the cult of saints). At the same time, it is shown that the primary was not the spiritual, but the social and, in particular, the ideological role of the intelligentsia, which was reflected in the works of the populists (G.I. Uspensky, N.K. Mikhailovsky). It is shown that D.S. Merezhkovsky developed this tradition, but gave the intelligentsia a global and mystical sound. It is noted that the critics of this approach were V.A. Ternavtsev, A.A. Blok and Vyach. Ivanov in the 1900s; these thinkers spoke of the need for the intelligentsia to enter the Church. It is concluded that after the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, the intelligentsia began to implement their own project of transforming the church system on democratic grounds.

Emblems of Faith: Holy Companions on the Road to Observance

The present study focuses on the specific devotional models that were promoted by the Observant Dominican friars in the late Middle Ages. By closely investigating textual and visual sources, previous research has noted that the reformed friars were eager to disseminate, particularly within the communities of the Observant Dominican women, the cult for the Passion of Christ and cults of saints that were easily transformed into models that pious women would adopt and emulate. Since the Observance was an European phenomenon and strong contacts existed between local friars and influential centres of reform, the prerequisites of the Dominican forma vitae became the standard according to which the communities of Observant Dominican women were organized and functioned. An integral part of this process of standardisation concerned the holy companions of the pious women affiliated to the Order of the Friars Preachers, who were usually recruited from the same cohort of saints represented by the Virgin Martyrs.