Patron Saint Research Articles (Page 1)

Nikolai Ivanovich Fechin (Никола́й Ива́нович Фе́шин) is an outstanding Russian oil painter in the early 20th century, and his work Kapustnitsa takes the peasant woman harvesting cabbage as the theme, skillfully integrating the important agricultural season and religious festivals in Russia, and constructs an artistic picture with regional characteristics. In addition to assigning a specific patron saint to cabbage, the Russian people also created festivals and crafted elaborate utensils such as cabbage knives and chopping boards, which elevated everyday life into a romantic artistic expression. Examining Kapustnitsa in this context, it can be seen that it is not only a realistic depiction of the Russian rural labor scene, but also a deep excavation and sincere presentation of Fechin's local folk customs and religious culture. As a representative of the ethnographic genre paintings of the Fechin series, this work records and interprets the cultural texture and spiritual core of Russian society in an artistic way, and provides an important visual text for the study of Russian folk culture and artistic creation in the early 20th century.

This study examines how cultural identity is negotiated in Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay, a novel that follows the story of Jay, a Filipino American teenager who travels to the Philippines after the death of his cousin. The research aims to analyze how the novel depicts the tensions between ancestry and lived experience, and how diasporic youth navigate their identity in the midst of family silence, emotional conflict, and political unrest. Using a qualitative literary analysis, this study applied reflexive thematic analysis to 487 coded extracts from the novel. Results were categorized under three major themes: 1) identity as being formed through memory, language, and cultural continuity;2) identity as becoming shaped through cultural disconnection, emotional discomfort, and ethical transformation; and, 3) the influence of family relationships and sociopolitical realities in the shaping of hybrid identity. The findings show that identity for diasporic and multiracial youth is not simply passed down, but actively constructed through emotional reflection and ethical positioning of the self. As a result, the study proposes the emergent theory of Fractured Narrative of Ethical Becoming, where identity is revealed not as a diasporic odyssey but as continuous act of transformation shaped by affective, intergenerational, and cultural ruptures.

Pamulinawen Festival, one of the long-established festivals of vibrance in the province of Ilocos Norte, is celebrated annually every February in Laoag City. The festival stages a month-long celebration of faith, honoring the city’s patron saint, William the Hermit, which has been a tradition of the Laoageňos influenced by Spain hundreds of years ago. This study explores the socio-economic, educational and cultural relevance of the said festival to the participants in the various sectors of the community. The researcher employed qualitative research design with interview as a method of gathering data. The data gathered were analyzed using thematic approach. The study involved eleven (11) respondents, targeting six (6) local entrepreneurs; three (3) educators; and one festival organizer, specifically the head of the tourism office of Laoag City. The findings revealed that the Pamulinawen festival plays a significant role in preserving the Laoageňos’ local culture, traditions, customs and values. It is also one way of boosting tourism as well as fostering community engagement and unity among the people. In addition, it also gives way for local entrepreneurs to help them earn income during the duration of the festival through its various socio-economic platforms. Moreover, the festival also gives opportunity for teachers to highlight their role as cultural advocates by encouraging and connecting the younger generations to their cultural roots, giving them the opportunity to participate and engage to the different activities during the said festivity. This makes the students work hand-in-hand with their teachers in preserving their community’s local color. The findings of this study unravel a deeper gateway of understanding of the Pamulinawen festival through the lens of economics, education and sociology.

Abstract A secular republic is a model of a state that recognizes the separation of public authority from church authority. This constitutional solution charac-terizes France. In the essence of the relations between the state and churches that are prevalent in France, the separation of these entities is justified by the rejection of what can divide the national community or reduce the cohesion of the nation. Case of France is very interesting and even paradoxal. The principle of secularism of the state functioning for more than a century, and has been supplemented over time by the principle of neutrality of the public service. However, France respects the hundreds of years of its historical legacy and tra-dition in which religion (Catholicism) has a prominent place. It is manifested in the very numerous public places referring to patron saints. The paper provides an explanation of this complicated issue. In addition to constitutional issues, the article discusses the procedural aspects of assignment public places the names of patron saints. The dominant method of analysis is the dogmatic-legal method.

Abstract Edward Upward’s revolutionary impulses were doomed to failure. A die-hard Marxist, he quit the British Communist Party in the mid-1940s because it was not adequately Leninist, and gave up the rich surrealism of his early work in favor of an extremely dry social realism, only to return to his fantastic style late in life. While Upward is often held up as a patron saint of lost potential, this essay argues that failure lies at the very heart of his aesthetic. Teetering between hope and unspeakable regret, Upward’s “art of failure” is remarkably ambivalent. Where his earlier novels employ failure as a tool of self-authorship, and even imagine it as a harbinger of revolutionary action, Upward’s final autobiographical writings (including some written in a hieroglyphic code) reflect on the everyday degradations involved in living past one’s peak.

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to analyze the canonization practices of Luke of Crimea and Alexander of Munich in the context of using their images in commemorative practices dedicated to the Second World War in the post-Soviet period. The relevance of the study is determined by the increasing role of religious actors in the commemoration of the Second World War and the need for a historical and political analysis of the mechanisms and practices of their activities. Methods and materials. Research methods include a comparative analysis of diocesan periodicals, decisions of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, and reports on the topics affected in the media, as well as actor analysis (A.I. Miller), which involves identifying the political interests of religious actors and the context for their implementation. The materials are the lives of Saints Luke the Blessed Surgeon and Alexander of Munich, diocesan periodicals, and media reports. Particular attention during the study is given to regional specifics, enabling the identification of features in the representation of the image of saints within local commemorative practices. Analysis. The history of the canonization of Saint Luke the Blessed Surgeon demonstrates that his evolution from locally revered to church saints is associated primarily with the active use of the image as the spiritual patron saint of doctors, as well as with the coincidence of the anniversary of the acquisition of his relics with the date of the reunification of Crimea and Russia. The military connotations of his image are secondary and appear only in the emergence of local discourses that actively use similar aspects of his biography. The canonization of Alexander of Munich takes place in the context of the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church and ROCOR, which makes it necessary to search for non-conflict common images of the past. Results. A feature of the politics of memory in the field of religious memorials of the Second World War is the weak use of images of direct participants due to both canonical and political factors that make it difficult to form consistent images.

This article examines the distribution of medieval English churches and chapels dedicated to St Gregory, arguing that this distribution reflects Gregory’s symbolic significance in the pre-Conquest church as a figure who could connect centres and margins. Early dedications in ecclesiastical and royal centres recall the Gregorian mission and the connection it forged between Britain, on the margins of Christian Europe, and Rome at the centre. Concentrations of later dedications in East Anglia and the South-West asserted the connection of these more peripheral regions with the newly formed English nation, through veneration of its patron saint. The decline in numbers of Gregory dedications after the Conquest reflects the transfer of Gregory’s status as founder of the English church and patron of the English nation to other saints.

Mr. Chang Shuhong, known as the “The Patron Saint of Dunhuang”, has devoted half of his life to the research and conservation of Dunhuang art, but is also a famous oil painter in China. During the special period of Chinese art field in the twentieth century, Mr. Chang Shuhong, as a pioneer in exploring the national style of oil painting, sought to integrate the language of oil painting with the national spirit through artistic practice. This paper takes Chang Shuhong's characters oil painting as the object of interpretation, focusing on its oil painting nationalization of artistic thought and style, his early years during his stay in France has been a remarkable achievement, with rigorous and fine brushstrokes to express the beauty of the human body. After returning to China in the transformation of the Dunhuang art, will be the art of perception and respect set in the oil painting brush, portraying a number of national characteristics of the character, the masterpieces of figure oil painting have a special significance of the wrapped with the memory of the history and the national spirit.

The novelle of Giovanni Sercambi include a savage adultery tale, De novo ludo, where punishment is supernatural and depends upon the curious association in the Italian tradition of St Martin of Tours with cuckoldom. This article surveys the early equation of cornuto with the name Martino in proverbial expressions and popular verse. In Sercambi’s tale, here translated for the first time, a husband is mocked by his wife for an overzealous devotion to San Martino. She had been carrying on with the local priest and it is the saint himself, disguised as a newly hired farmhand, who castrates the wayward cleric. Feeling betrayed by his mistress, the priest, in a pretended kiss, mutilates her in turn. This curious employment of Martin as a patron saint of cuckolds is matched by other appropriations of popular hagiography in Sercambi and later folktales where St Martin serves as a trickster cum wish-fulfilment figure.

The brand of Catholicism that exists in the Philippines blends both Christian and folk traditions. During the precolonial period, sponsoring community rituals was obligatory for the datu (chieftain) and the local aristocracy, as these events consumed significant resources. The Christianization of the country through Spanish colonization transformed precolonial sponsorship traditions as new sponsorship practices emerged among the local elites, aligning them with the veneration of the santo (images of saints) and the fiesta (the feast of the town’s patron saint). This article explores a distinct Catholic sponsorship system in the Southern Tagalog region called sayaw ng bati or bati, a dance ritual performed in Angono, Rizal, during Easter. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with three performers, the article provided an overview of bati as a sponsorship system, focusing on the process of becoming a performer and the corresponding motivations, the material and economic aspects of the practice, and the positioning of bati within the context of panata (devotional pledge).

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the relevance of a multi-vector systematic study of the archaic religious beliefs of the Karachays and Balkarians, which is reflected in the texts of the Nart epic. For the first time, the article analyzes the pre-Islamic components of the beliefs of the Karachay-Balkarian people, which primarily include Tengrianism, and subsequently Christianity. The purpose of the article is to examine the specifics of reflecting the religious beliefs of the Karachay-Balkarian ethnic group in the Nart epic through various linguistic means. To achieve this goal, tasks were set aimed at identifying archaic Tengrian deities, artifacts associated with shamanism, as well as identifying and describing their functional features. The research was conducted mainly using the descriptive method, as well as using methods of comparison, component and lexico-semantic analysis, and various procedures for the linguistic interpretation of linguistic facts. As a result of the conducted research, we come to the conclusion that the core of the religious beliefs of the ethnic group reflected in the epic is Tengrianism, which is supported by the presence of a system of celestial deities in it, the main of which are patrons of such significant elements as heaven, earth, water and fire. In addition, a number of stable descriptions containing the name of the supreme deity Teiri were identified, which still serve the field of speech etiquette, reflecting the belief of native speakers in the possibility of obtaining various benefits from it under certain conditions. In the texts of the epic, Teiri is anthropomorphized, his cult is included in the cycle of human life, he is an omnipotent and omnipresent God, who is found in everything, being the creator of the cosmos, living beings and supporting their vital activity. Along with Tengrianism, shamanism also contributed to the formation of the spiritual culture, religious and mythological views of the Karachays and Balkars, the elements of which in the epic texts are represented by the names of various characters and the tools of their activities. The texts of the epic also reflect the time when the form of religious beliefs among the ancestors of the Karachays and Balkars was a complex interweaving of paganism with elements of Orthodox Christianity. This is mainly due to the figure of Elijah (aka the Old Testament prophet Elijah), who acts as the patron saint of the Narts in all their affairs. This study has prospects for subsequent scientific and theoretical research aimed at interdisciplinary analysis of epic discourse, which will allow us to fully present a holistic picture of the world of the Karachay-Balkarian people at the early stages of its formation.

Abstract The veneration of Saint Nicholas as the patron saint of merchants was widespread among both the Catholic and Orthodox communities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the late Middle Ages. This was evident in the construction of St Nicholas Catholic churches in major cities throughout the Grand Duchy, a trend closely associated with the activities of German merchants in the region. In the 14th and the 15th centuries, Ruthenian merchants also embraced Saint Nicholas as their patron, primarily in the western regions of the state. The emphasis on the “trade” aspect of the saint’s cult among the Ruthenians persisted until the 17th century. While direct evidence of merchants’ veneration of St Nicholas is limited, the study of this phenomenon primarily relies on an analysis of urban topography, particularly the presence of churches in market squares (Rynok). The geographical distribution of these churches provides valuable insights into the process of late medieval urbanization in the area. Additionally, Orthodox churches were constructed in the main residences of the monarchs within the predominantly Catholic, ethnically Lithuanian territories. This underscores the significant role played by the Ruthenians in the urbanization of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The widespread adoption of St Nicholas as the patron saint of merchants can be attributed to Western cultural influences, reflecting the expansion of trade with European nations and the integration of the Grand Duchy into the European market.

Karakol is a ritual dance performed by the people of the province of Cavite every time there is a feast of a Patron Saint or a “Poon” in a chapel or parish. However, in recent years, there has been a shift towards the use of modern music and modern steps and variations in dancing the ritual dance Karakol. This change has received different reactions from the people, especially with the older generations. Some people are criticizing these changes, and want to bring it back to the dance to its traditional style. However, some people perceive these changes as an opportunity to attract younger generations to go back to church and continue the tradition of dancing the Karakol. This research paper examines the changes in the Karakol ritual dance. Focusing on the evolution of the dance and its ritual, the motivations behind the changes from traditional religious Karakol, modern religious Karakol, to modern secular Karakol, a proposed categorization by Dioso and Demeterio in this paper on Karakol Ritual Dance. The theory of cultural performance, and Tiatco’s phenomenon of Panata, Pagtitipon, and Pagdiriwang are one of the bases of this paper, this study comparatively analyzed the three proposed categories of Karakol using the data from interviews and online videos and livestreams, visual ethnography during Karakol celebrations, as well as the personal experience of the researcher as a devotee and as a Karakol dancer. By identifying the cultural meanings and symbols expressed in the Cultural Performance, the study identified the differences in the suggested categories of Karakol in two old churches in Cavite, the Tanza Church and Rosario Church. In this sense, traditional religious Karakol is being overshadowed while the modern categories such as modern religious Karakol and modern secular Karakol are becoming more popular and more recognized by new devotees and Karakol dancers. This research is part of preliminary studies on this undocumented culture of devotion through the Karakol ritual dance.

Summary This case study examines the Hemmaberg Pilgrimage route, situated within the UNESCO Global Geopark of Karavanke/Karawanken, spanning the Austria-Slovenia border. The broader area of the Geopark faces economic and demographic challenges. Despite its richness in geological diversity and cultural heritage, the lack of awareness of the area’s tourism potential and absence of a solid tourism plan hinder its path towards sustainable tourism success. Through a series of interviews with local stakeholders and experts in heritage and culture, as well as the use of secondary data, this case study outlines how merely preserving heritage value is not enough to ensure regeneration in this rural area, especially due to its remoteness. Via a specific model used for tourism management, it is established that the Hemmaberg route has great potential to attract tourists but must enhance various aspects of Hardware, Software and Orgware to become a successful pilgrimage route. These aspects include improving accessibility, tourist appeal and experiences while involving multiple stakeholders in heritage preservation and promotion. As the cave of worship of the patron saint of the area, St. Rosalia, was recently restored after a rockfall in 2015, now is the perfect time to chart a path towards sustainable tourism success for this pilgrimage site. Information © The Authors 2025

The Middle Ages were a period influenced by the Christian faith. In medicine the saints were venerated as intercessory figures in the cure of diseases. Particularly, urology has 6 saints that stand out: firstly, the couple of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, venerated for healing diseases related to the urinary tract and kidney stones. There is also Saint Margaret of Antioch, who is represented with a belt that surrounds the kidneys, which is why she is associated as the protector of nephrology. St. Liborius of Le Mans healed an archbishop from "the disease of stones," which made him the patron saint of kidney stones. St. Zoilo of Cordoba was a martyr who was tortured with the removal of his kidneys before his execution, which made him a symbol of healing for kidney problems and urinary retention. Lastly, St. Roch of Montpellier was a martyr associated with the "plague of pleasure," syphilis, since he devoted his life to the treatment of patients with plague. Medieval urological practice is noted as well due to uroscopy, a 6000-year-old method consisting of macroscopic analysis of urine that evolved from ancient Babylonian texts, went to the observations recorded by Hippocrates, and ended in the systematization by Theophilus of Constantinople in his work De Urinis. Uroscopy, although primitive, represented a significant step towards a medicine based on observation and systematic analysis of diseases.

Abstract: This article focuses on an emergent, transnational Hasidic revival movement centered around the Kerestirer Rebbe, Yeshaya Steiner (Shayele), a Hungarian miracle worker who lived in Hungary from 1851 to 1925. His iconic portrait is commonly associated with mystical protection against the infestation of rodents in Jewish homes and businesses. I reveal how this is only one small piece of his broader populist appeal, however. I do this by interweaving hagiographic texts, Hasidic social media, and ethnography with anthropological theory and political theology on hospitality, sovereignty, and patronage. I contend that Shayele operates as a populist patron saint of protection against other “intruders” into everyday Hasidic life (e.g., police, inspectors, and judges). In invoking the sovereign authority of a dead Hasidic master, Shayele’s male followers talk back, quite literally, to power—held by multiple social actors and distributed across multiple jurisdictions, including living Hasidic leaders and state authorities. Rather than rehearsing a normative cosmopolitan account of hospitality, which frames hospitality as a series of rights endowed to the stranger, I reframe hospitality as a site of mediation between human, metahuman, and divine actors. Hospitality offers guests refuge from a world always imagined as hostile and exterior to it; the saint, as a threshold figure, polices boundaries, protecting welcome intruders (guests) from unwelcome intruders (enemies). While largely dormant for nearly a century, this revival movement shares a common political grammar with a resurgent populist politics. His hospitality extends to patrons, cronies, and friends; his sovereign authority shields patrons from (common) enemies and from consequences.

The author examines the practice of veneration of St. Clement of Rome within the Western and Eastern Christian churches, as well as in Iceland, where his cult was less widespread. Based on the image of St. Clement in Old Norse literature, it can be concluded that the saint holds a particular role in this society as an apologist for intellectual culture and a new ideal of the educated person, combining knowledge of Christian doctrine with the Latin seven liberal arts. Therefore, according to the author's hypothesis, Pope Clement was regarded as a paragon of bishops, the patron saint of education, and a role model for clergy and students aspiring to become priests.

The Black Death in 1348 was followed by a period of ongoing skirmishes between the city-states of Florence and Siena, marked by active territorial expansion, mercenary raids, and larger wars. Subject towns were profoundly affected by this turmoil and came under the alternating influence and control of the two dominant cities. In the face of this unrest, one way for inhabitants of subject towns – including Lucignano, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, and Cortona – to manifest both local identity and political allegiance was to commission artworks. Of the paintings made for these contested sites from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, a number include depictions of the town for which the image was made, held by a patron saint. These city models offer a valuable lens on a marginalized area, providing insight into how subject towns were conceptualized and understood by patrons, artists, and viewers. Saintly advocacy and protection are frequently invoked in relation to recent or ongoing political upheaval, emphasizing civic and sacred loyalties or affiliations. The depiction of towns as models held by saints also echoes the actual transactional changes of ownership that frequently occurred, reflecting the multifaceted power dynamics between artist and patron, or between dominant city and subject town. Furthermore, the prevalence of such city models in paintings commissioned from Sienese artists suggests a particular Sienese “border mentality,” or an awareness of the intersections of identity that result from existing on shifting cultural and political borders.

The research aims to understand parents' knowledge about the elements of moral education and the forms of moral education application to children concerning solidarity, justice, and honesty imparted by parents to realize bonum prolis as the goal of Catholic marriage. A descriptive qualitative approach is employed, utilizing interview, observation, and documentation methods. The research informants consist of nine parents with a marriage duration of 5–15 years. The study is conducted from December 2023 to March 2024. Data analysis involves technique triangulation and source triangulation. The results indicate that parents possess knowledge of the elements of moral education, such as mutual respect, helping one another, justice, and honesty. The application of moral education in solidarity includes avoiding harsh words, involving children in social activities, praying for friends, respecting those who worship, and teaching the words "sorry," "thank you," and "please." In terms of justice, parents habituate children to act responsibly, be fair, advise children on sharing, and teach fair decision-making. For honesty, parents instill it by avoiding exaggeration or omission of information, listening without judgment, appreciating honesty, and sharing positive stories about the child's patron saint.

The two medieval patron saints of Poland, St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaus, both suffered martyrdom. The tradition of the life and the martyrdom of St. Adalbert developed from the end of the tenth century until the late Middle Ages. On the contrary, the tradition of St. Stanislaus’s martyrdom arose at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and had a fully developed form. Information about the details of the martyrdom of both saints are contained in various types of sources: hagiographical, historical and liturgical poetry. In the accounts of martyrdom there are mentions of gestures made by three subjects: the martyr, the killers and God. As a result of these acts, the body is martyred and destroyed, but the soul of the martyr is glorified. Numerous marks on the martyr’s body visible during martyrdom confirm the glory achieved by his soul.