This thesis focuses on the startling ways in which a significant number of early Christian hagiographies feature saints with rotting flesh and suppurative wounds. It explores this phenomenon first by considering ancient medical understandings of diseases such as phagedenic ulcers, gangrene, and the production of pus as evidence of humoural imbalances requiring medical intervention. Then it considers reasons why early Christians developed more positive attitudes regarding these conditions. These include associating rotting flesh with superior spiritual fortitude. They also include non-theological reasons for this phenomenon. This thesis hypothesizes that early Christians also enjoyed looking at rotting saints out of a voyeuristic desire to gaze upon otherwise hidden bodies. Furthermore, it argues that Christians enjoyed exposing themselves to feelings of fear and anxiety because of the neurochemical dimensions the experience stimulated. / May 2017

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1977. / Cataloging based on CIP information. Includes bibliographical references (p).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2003. / Thesis directed by Michael Lapidge and Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe for the Department of English. "December 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-288).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves : 86-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of St. Andrews, 2000. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-259) and index.

Thesis--Stockholm. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-139).

Roots back to diss. Cornwall Univ., 2003. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Akademisk afhandling--Upsala. / "Källor och litteratur": p. [xiv]-xxvii.

This study investigates whether or nor not the imagery of Catherine of Siena can be interpreted from a Jungian perspective. It takes a lead from other studies, notably one on Teresa of Avila and Jung. Reading of medieval literature suggests that medievals applied the use of symbols and imagery in ways that are at times baffling to people of our time. Carl Jung was no stranger to imagery and symbol. In our current age with its renewed emphasis on the insights of spirituality, and to some extent its disenchantment with aspects of traditional psychology, there is room for a dialogue between the two disciplines of mysticism and psychology across a six-hundred year divide. The use of imagery, as a window to the soul, in the Christian tradition is examined. Catherine of Siena is situated within her own medieval context, one of upheaval in the church, but also an age of mysticism and spiritual/religious phenomena strange to our own time. Catherine is introduced against the background of her world and against the backdrop of the Dominican tradition. A discussion of some of her major imagery demonstrates her aim of union with God. An understanding of conscious aspects and of unconscious aspects of the self is shown as key to Jung ' s view of the psyche. Elucidation of some archetypes and a discussion of Jung's dream analysis demonstrates how Jung believed the unconscious becomes conscious, and how individuation becomes a possibility. Key Catherinian images are examined from a Jungian perspective. Catherine has relevance for the twenty first century, and we are invited to be challenged by the mysteries and truths to which her images point us.

Orientador: Ronaldo Romulo Machado de Almeida / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T10:39:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Soares_HugoRicardo_M.pdf: 1816097 bytes, checksum: f3fbaf7896f25ad29262c2451493c512 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O tema desta pesquisa é a produção social de um santo católico. Para desenvolvê-la, parto de alguns pressupostos objetivando orientar minhas análises. Entendo que a produção de um santo, mais do que um fenômeno jurídico-teológico, possui uma dimensão social articulando e determinando a dinâmica deste processo. Para analisar esta questão, ocupo-me com o caso da produção da crença e da devoção ao padre salesiano polonês Rodolfo Komórek que viveu os últimos nove anos de sua vida em São José dos Campos, Estado de SP. Foi nesta cidade que, após sua morte em 1949, floresceu de forma efetiva sua santidade. Vários sãos os grupos envolvidos no processo de produção do santo, cada qual com seus interesses, objetivos e maneiras de participação. De forma clara existem dois que são principais: os especialistas do sagrado (representados por membros da Congregação Salesiana de São José dos Campos) e os devotos leigos. Os primeiros produzem uma série de bens simbólicos que eles mesmos distribuem para os fiéis objetivando encaixar o santo e a devoção a ele rendida nos moldes determinados pela Teologia. Os seguintes, mais do que meros consumidores desses bens, também são produtores ativos, pois, re-significam estes bens adaptando-os conforme suas necessidades contextuais. A primeira grande conclusão a que se chegou, a partir do estudo desta relação dialética entre especialistas do sagrado e leigos, é de que os bens simbólicos produzidos neste processo seguem um sentido de mão dupla, pois são gerados pela Igreja e lançados num campo social específico, depois são absorvidos pelos leigos, re-significados de acordo com as necessidades contextuais dessas pessoas e exteriorizados sob diversas formas, a mais óbvia é o próprio ato devocional. A segunda conclusão é de que cada etapa deste processo necessita da outra para que seu produto final seja efetivo. Este é um sistema que se retroalimenta e que também possibilita aumentar o capital simbólico dos produtores desses bens. Todas estas sanções e rituais de consagração que marcam as etapas pelas quais são atribuídos os bens simbólicos geram na verdade um sentido espiralar, ou seja, um sentido crescente na legitimidade do santo e também dos fazedores de santo. / Abstract: The theme of thios research refers to the social production of a catholic saint. To develop it, I start from some previous concepts aiminy to lead then to may analysin. I comprehend that the production of a saint, more than a theological-juridic phenomenon, also has a social dimension articulating and determining the dynamic of the whole process. To analyse this question, I occupy fully myself in the production of the belief and also in to the devotion to salesian Polish priest Rodolfo Komórek who lived his last nine years in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brasil. It was after his death in 1949, that his sanctity blossomed effectively in this town. Many groups are envolved in the process of the production of the saint, each group with their own interests and objectives. Ther two main groups: the experts on the sacredness and the non-experts. The first ones produce several symbolic assets which are distributed to the faithful people aiming to fit the saint ando devotion to him on the patterns determined by the Theology. The second group, more than consumers, are also manufacturers since they resignify these asset, adapting according to the context needs. The first great conclusion that came from this study of dialectual relationship between the sacredness and the layman, is that the symbolic assets manufactured in this process fallow two way traffic, since they are generated by the Church and launched into the specific social field, after that absorved by the laymen, resignified according to the contextual needs of the people and expressed on different ways, the most obvious one is the devotion act itself. The second conclusion is that each stage process needs one another to come to the final effective product. The system feeds it self and also makes possible increase the symbolic capital assets of the manufacturers. All these sanctions and rituals of the consecration that mark the stage on the symbolic assets are attributed and they generate, in fact, a coil sense, in other words, a crescentic sense of legitimating of the saint and the making saints. / Mestrado / Antropologia das Religião / Mestre em Antropologia Social