Sainteté, tradition spirituelle et héritage prophétique : tels sont les notions clés qui permettent de comprendre le rôle exceptionnel que la ville de Fès a joué pendant toute son histoire comme centre de spiritualité, comme lieu sacré et ville des saints. L’hagiographie reflète cette vision que la ville, et les acteurs de sa vie spirituelle, donnent d’elle-même, une vision sacrée de sa propre vocation et de son rôle providentiel dans l’histoire du salut. Cité fondée par Idrīs II, héritier à la fois charnel, spirituel et temporel du Prophète, et cité de science, Fès ne cessera jamais d’attirer les hommes de Dieu. Les saints, inspirés par l’aura de la ville, par son patrimoine sacré et son destin singulier, l’imprègnent à leur tour de leur présence. Ils s’inscrivent dans une tradition spirituelle qu’ils revivifient constamment en actualisant l’héritage prophétique, fondateur de la vocation de Fès et constitutif de la sainteté voire du sacré. Ils l’adaptent par leur personnalité, leur enseignement et leur simple présence, aux divers contextes politiques et socio-culturels. La première partie de la thèse fait état de la tradition hagiographique propre à Fès, la seconde suit dans l’histoire l’évolution des types de saints et la troisième analyse les modalités et les manifestations de la sainteté ainsi que sa relation à la ville. / Sainthood, spiritual tradition and prophetic heritage: these are the key concepts for understanding the unique role that the city of Fez has played throughout its history as a centre of spirituality, a sacred place and as city of saints. The hagiographic literature portrays an image of the city and of the actors of its spiritual life which highlights the city's sacred vocation and its providential role in the history of salvation. As a city which, having been founded by a temporal, natural and spiritual heir of the Prophet, is considered blessed and because of it being a major centre of science, Fez never ceased to attract men of God. Impregnated and inspired by the aura of the city, by its sacred patrimony and its unique destiny, the saints permeate it in turn with the holy presence of which they are the mediators. They integrate themselves into a spiritual tradition which they reconstitute and revivify constantly by actualizing the prophetic legacy, that is, the founding element of the original vocation of Fez and the constitutive element of sainthood and even of the sacred. Through their personality, their teaching and their mere presence they adapt this legacy to the different political and socio-cultural contexts. The first part of the thesis studies the hagiographical tradition of Fez, the second part follows the evolution of the types of saints in history whereas the third part analyses the modalities and the manifestations of sainthood as well as its relation to the city.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:25:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FlavioADC_DISSERT.pdf: 1116353 bytes, checksum: 035b6cc625333bf5dd86e4b6e0dbc2d9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-15 / The aim of this study is to understand the version of St. Francis of Assisi created by Friar Thomas of Celano in his hagiographic works. That study also it examines how the Order of Friars Minor and the Papacy have understood the relationship between Christians and the world and turned thisunderstanding in a version of the Saint. Factors such as the replacement of Neoplatonism byAristotelianism as philosophical paradigm and economic and social changes have contributed to change the interpretation of the biblical mandate to not love the world , no longer interpreted as materiality, but as an order for Christians to flee sin. The rejection of the world was replaced by a greater appreciation of nature and society. Moreover, increasingly, the body went from enemy to friend, becoming the brotherbody. Such analysis is important to review the idea, so common in the historiography of what MaxWeber called Worldly Asceticism, the Christian life lived in society, only emerged in Protestantism in opposition to monasticism. The mendicant orders, especially the minority tried during the thirteenth century, the period of analysis of this work, experience the loving nature of Christianity and acting,through preaching and charity in the cities.To make this work, were analyzed the hagiographic discourse (on San Francisco) made by Thomas of Celano, Vita beati Francisci (called Vita Prima) and Memorial in desideiro anime (named Vita Secunda) and, from this, understand the Celano?s interpretation on how it should be the Christian's relationship with the world. The world ceased to be adistorted reflection of a perfect reality, becoming the perfect reflection of God's goodness. / O objetivo desse trabalho ? entender a vers?o de S?o Francisco de Assis criada por Frei Tom?s de Celano em suas obras hagiogr?ficas, para, a partir disso, analisar como a Ordem dos Frades Menores e o Papado compreenderam a rela??o do crist?o com o mundo e transformaram essa compreens?o em uma vers?o do Santo. Fatores como a substitui??o do Neoplatonismo pelo Aristotelismo como paradigma filos?fico e altera??es econ?micas e sociais contribu?ram para alterar a interpreta??o das ordens b?blicas para n?o amar o mundo , n?o mais interpretadas como materialidade, e sim como uma ordem para o crist?o fugir do pecado. O desprezo pelo mundo foi substitu?do por um maior apre?o pela natureza e pela sociedade. Al?m disso, cada vez mais, o corpo passou de inimigo a amigo, tornado-se o irm?o corpo. Tal an?lise ? importante para rever a id?ia, t?o comum na historiografia, de que o que Max Weber chamou de Ascese Intramundana, a vida crist? vivida em sociedade, s? surgiu no Protestantismo, em oposi??o ao Monasticismo. As Ordens Mendicantes, sobretudo o Minoritismo, tentaram, durante o s?culo XIII, per?odo de an?lise desse trabalho, vivenciar o Cristianismo amando a natureza e agindo, por meio da prega??o e da caridade, nas cidades. Para fazer esse trabalho, foram analisados os discursos hagiogr?ficos (sobre S?o Francisco) feitos por Tom?s de Celano, Vita beati Francisci (chamada de Vita Prima) e Memoriale in desiderio anime (chamada de Vita Secunda) para, a partir disso, entender a interpreta??o de Celano de como deve ser a rela??o do crist?o com o mundo. O mundo deixou de ser um reflexo distorcido de uma realidade perfeita, passando a ser reflexo perfeito da bondade de Deus.

abstract: Wu Yun (d. 778) was prominent poet at the Tang court. His biography of the Daoist ritualist Lu Xiujing (406-77) can be read on several levels. It functions as a source of information on Lu's life and works, but a reading focused on this alone is insufficient. Conventions of Chinese biography dictate the text is read not just with an eye towards who Lu "really was," but also how he functions as a character fashioned by an author for certain purposes. With this in mind, the reader can learn not just about Lu, but about the audience of the text and the aims of its author. Lu functioned as a model for later Daoist masters and as an exhortation to proper conduct towards them on the part of rulers and elites. Finally, with reference to the work of Michel Foucault and scholars of collective memory, this work can be read as a window onto the world of discourse in early medieval China. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Religious Studies 2012

Pouco após a morte do jesuíta José de Anchieta, em 1597, na província brasileira da Companhia de Jesus, e durante todo o século seguinte, muitas biografias de caráter hagiográfico sobre o padre foram escritas e publicadas por jesuítas, no Brasil e na Europa. Em paralelo, um processo eclesiástico foi aberto na Santa Sé em princípios do Seiscentos com o fim de canonizar o religioso. A iniciativa partiu dos companheiros do Brasil, e recebeu grande apoio da Cúria Geral da Ordem. Esta, desde a década de 1580, se dedicava a propagar, interna e externamente, uma determinada memória institucional e uma identidade jesuítica comum, representada pelos santos, beatos e membros considerados mais notáveis da Companhia, como José de Anchieta. No presente trabalho, procuramos investigar as principais razões que mobilizaram tanto a Cúria romana da Ordem, quanto jesuítas que viviam em contextos missionários tão distintos, no Novo e no Velho Mundo, a se apropriarem da figura de Anchieta, divulgarem discursos sobre a sua vida e santidade e promoverem a sua canonização. Acreditamos que este estudo oferece uma nova interpretação sobre os sentidos atribuídos e os usos feitos dos discursos hagiográficos produzidos entre 1598 e 1677 sobre José de Anchieta. Tanto no contexto luso-brasileiro quanto em contextos locais na Europa, as biografias devotas do jesuíta foram dotadas de diversos significados políticos e religiosos, e utilizadas para fins que ultrapassavam o seu propósito ordinário de edificação espiritual e religiosa. / Shortly after the death of the jesuit José de Anchieta in 1597 in the brazilian province of the Society of Jesus, and throughout the following century, many biographies of a hagiographic character about the priest were written and published by jesuits in Brazil and Europe. In parallel, an ecclesiastical process was opened in the Holy See in the early seventeenth century in order to canonize the religious. The initiative came from the companions of Brazil, and received great support from the General Curia of the Order. Since the 1580s, the Curia has been dedicated to propagate, internally and externally, a certain institutional memory and a common jesuit identity, represented by the saints, blessed and members of the Company considered most remarkable, such as José de Anchieta. In the present work, we seek to investigate the main reasons that mobilized both the Roman Curia of the Order and jesuits living in such different missionary contexts, in the New and Old World, to appropriate the figure of Anchieta, to make speeches about his life and holiness and to promote his canonization. We believe that this study offers a new interpretation on the attributed meanings and uses made of the hagiographic discourses produced between 1598 and 1677 about José de Anchieta. Both in the portuguese and brazilian context and in local contexts in Europe, the devout biographies of the jesuit were endowed with various political and religious meanings and were used for purposes that went beyond their ordinary purpose of spiritual and religious edification.

The topic of violence in Late Antiquity is a heavily debated subject and many scholars have focused on this issue, as evidenced by the many studies published within the last ten years. The perception of Late Antiquity as a period of widespread religious violence is mainly influenced by Christian literary sources, who document accounts of violence against temples, statuary, and people alike. Egypt, in particular, has often been used as an example to demonstrate the destructive nature of religious violence that existed in the ancient world. However, the concept of religious violence is a complicated and nuanced topic. In Egypt, the many accounts by the Christian sources were written with specific intentions and the events documented in the texts were often exaggerated. The objective of this thesis is to provide a study of statue destruction by Christians between the fourth to seventh centuries CE in Egypt, and determine whether these destructions were acts of religious violence or were carried out for another reason in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of violence in Late Antiquity. By juxtaposing accounts from literary sources and archaeological evidence, the study seeks to determine whether the literary sources are accurate in their documentation of widespread statue destruction, or whether the violent discourse present in the literary sources is the result of Christian polemical purposes.

Écriture, histoire et identité entretiennent des rapports étroits entre le milieu du IXe siècle et le milieu du XIIe siècle à Saint-Sauveur de Redon, Saint-Magloire de Léhon, Dol et Alet/Saint-Malo. À partir de l’exemple de ces deux abbayes et de ces deux sièges épiscopaux, il s’agit de déceler les enjeux entre la production de textes et les processus idéologiques et culturels du moment. Plus largement, cette étude s’enracine dans la réflexion sur la fonction du passé et sur ses usages, en particulier dans le cadre de la formation des identités des communautés monastiques et des sièges épiscopaux. À la lumière des acquis historiographiques récents sur les pratiques de l’écriture, on se propose d’étudier l’ensemble des productions textuelles, qu’elles soient hagiographiques, historiographiques ou diplomatiques. L’analyse de la mise en texte des moments fondateurs de l’histoire des communautés monastiques et des sièges épiscopaux dans un premier temps et leur mise en perspective dans un second temps montre que ce sont à des moments charnières, au cours desquels se redéfinissent les pouvoirs ecclésiastiques et laïques, en particulier dans la seconde moitié du IXe siècle et de la fin du XIe siècle jusqu’au milieu du XIIe siècle, que les unes et les autres se sont attachés à mettre par écrit la mémoire de leur passé en élaborant des stratégies discursives afin de légitimer ou délégitimer des situations contemporaines / From the middle of the ninth century to the middle of the twelfth century, at Saint-Sauveur de Redon, Saint-Magloire de Léhon, Dol and Alet/Saint-Malo, there appears to be a close link between writing, history and identity. Basing our analysis on the exemples of those two abbeys and those two episcopal sees, we shall see how the writing of texts interact with the ideological and cultural framework of the time. On a broader level, this study is rooted in the historical revision on the fonction and uses of the past and how, in particular, it may come to shape the identities of the monastic communities and the episcopal sees. We shall focus on the whole textual production, be it hagiographic, historiographic or diplomatic, in the light of the recent developments in hagiographic studies as regards the practice of writing. The analysis of how the founding events in the history of the monastic communities and the episcopal sees were recorded into words and then put into perspective has revealed that it was at the key moments when the ecclesiastical and secular powers were redefined – especially in the second half of the ninth century and from the end of the eleventh century to the middle of the twelfth century – that they all took to writing down the memory of their past, elaborating discursive strategies that would legitimize or delegitimize contemporary events

Cette étude s’efforce de comprendre de quelles manières la figure biblique d’Étienne (Actes 6-8) s’est transmise et a été reçue dans le christianisme des six premiers siècles de notre ère. Du texte des Actes des apôtres à la translation de ses reliques à Rome en 589, notre enquête tente de saisir les mécanismes conduisant à la construction d’Étienne comme un saint dont le culte fut central dans l’histoire du christianisme. Nous nous attachons en particulier à l’étude des diverses formes que son culte a revêtues après la découverte de ses reliques, en Palestine au ve siècle, et de sa rapide diffusion en Méditerranée orientale et occidentale. À cette fin, nous examinerons l’ensemble des pièces du dossier hagiographique d’Étienne à la lumière des recherches les plus récentes sur le culte des saints, l’hagiographie et l’histoire de la Palestine dans l’Antiquité tardive. Au terme de cette étude, nous espérons surtout exposer les motivations idéologiques de l’usage des reliques du saint dans un contexte où s’entrecroisent controverses doctrinales, topographie sacrée, antijudaïsme et construction de la mémoire chrétienne. / This study aims at understanding in what ways the biblical figure of Stephen (Acts 6-8) was transmitted and received in Christianity during the first six centuries of our era. From the text of the Acts of the apostles to the translation of his relics to Rome in 589, our investigation attempts to grasp the mechanisms that led to the construction of Stephen as a saint whose cult was central in the history of Christianity. In particular we shall concentrate on the various forms of his cult that appeared after the discovery of his relics, in Palestine in the vth century, and on its rapid spreading in the eastern and western parts of the Mediterranean. With this aim in view, we shall examine all the documents of the hagiographical dossier of Stephen in the light of the most advanced research on the cult of saints, hagiography and the history of Palestine in Late Antiquity. At the end of this study, we hope, above all, to expound the ideological motives of the use of the saint’s relics in a context in which doctrinal controversies, sacred topography, antijudaism and construction of the Christian memory intersect.

<p>While the body in medieval literature can be compared to a text, the nature of this text varies depending on the classification of the body in question. For a monster, the body is static: it indicates victory, marks borders, and is not engaged with beyond the initial dismemberment and display. Conversely, the saintly body is a dynamic body, constantly called upon to continue acting on behalf of the community in the form of miracles. The saintly body is a body in flux—changing and accruing narratives to itself over time. Despite these differences, however, the body itself exists on a spectrum, ranging from human to non-human, and from monstrous to beatific. I therefore further argue that it is the relationship of the deceased individual and the community that determines how a body is treated and understood after death, even if the postmortem body in question bears signs that could easily be interpreted as either monstrous or saintly. This reception, in turn, is reflected in the body’s role within the community.</p>

abstract: This dissertation concerns “revelations to others” in medieval hagiographical and visionary texts. Revelations to others take many forms—spiritual visions, dreams, visual and tactile witnessing of miracles, auditions—but they all are experienced by someone other than, or in addition to, the holy person who is the subject of the text. This type of revelatory experience is common and, I argue, highly significant. Most straightforwardly, revelations to others serve to further authenticate holy women or men, confirming their devotion to God, their miraculous abilities, and/or their favored position with Christ. But revelations to others do much more than authorize the visionary. They voice the possibility that one could learn to have visions, which has interesting connections to modern ideas of guided seeing, such as meditation. They suggest circumstances in which holy persons served as devotional objects, helping their viewers achieve a higher level of religious experience in a similar manner to stained glass windows, crucifixes, or images of Veronica’s veil. For women, revelations to others sometimes offer access to spaces in which they could not physically step foot, such as the altar or the bedrooms of abbots. Moreover, by showcasing the variety of persons participating in divine experiences (monks and nuns, lay persons, nobility, and sometimes other holy persons), revelations to others speak to the larger visionary communities in which these holy persons lived. Through a series of close readings, this dissertation creates a taxonomy of revelations to others and argues for their necessity in understanding the collaborative nature of medieval spirituality. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

While Constantine worked diligently to unite the Roman Empire under the banner of Christianity in the early fourth century after the Edict of Milan and Council of Nicaea, it was the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 under Theodosius I that made Christianity the Roman state religion. During this time of conversion and great change within the empire, as well as earlier in the fourth century, new adherents to the religion were unsure about what it meant to be a Christian as well as how one should act in order to present themselves as a true believer. Many were still very familiar with their ancestral and polytheistic traditions, but were unsure of the character of this new, singular God. They had questions concerning their identity within this new framework. Was everything different now that they had accepted Christianity? Were their actions supposed to be entirely different than what their ancestors had taught them? To address the issue of Christian identity during this period, Prudentius, a Spanish Christian, composed many works in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, including his Peristephanon Liber, a compilation of fourteen Christian martyr texts. In these texts, Prudentius used gendered language to show the superiority of the Christian martyrs. The Christians were depicted as having self-control, active, and having a willingness to die while the pagan persecutors and judges were seen as being filled with wrath, unjust, and unable to properly govern. By using gendered language that was familiar to the new converts of the Roman Empire with respect to sexuality and masculinity, Prudentius sought to help create a masculine Christian identity that was both recognizable and superior to the masculinity of the previous regime. In order to prove this, an analysis on gender in the ancient world and its scholarship will be summarized. I will then describe the two martyr texts that portray women as the protagonist: Eulalia and Agnes. By analyzing the gendered language of these texts, I hope to show how Prudentius used gender, something that the Romans already understood, to invert traditional gender roles and present the Christians as the more masculine and the pagans as more feminine. By bending gender, Prudentius sought to teach these new Christians that being a Christian made a person not only masculine, but also a superior masculine figure than if they still believed in paganism. By focusing on the language of these texts and using secondary sources, I show that Prudentius, like previous Christian authors, used gendered language and female protagonists in order to show these new Christians what it meant to be a true believer, thus attempting to create a superior Christian identity in a newly Christianized society.