Before his death, Michael Jackson arguably was one of the most famous living celebrities to walk the planet. Onstage, on air, and onscreen, he captivated the attention of millions of people around the world, whether because they loved him or loved to hate him. In an attempt to explain his popularity and cultural influence, I analyze certain theoretical and methodological approaches found in recent scholarship on western hagiographic and teratological texts, and apply these theories and methods to selected biographies written on Michael Jackson. By interpreting the biographies in this way, I suggest why saints, monsters, and celebrities have received considerable attention in their respective communities, and demonstrate how public responses to these figures are contextual, constructed, and often contradictory.

This thesis seeks to explore and survey the different understandings of Fatima bt. Muhammad "al-Zahra'" in different Shi'i social, religious, and political contexts. This investigation situates Fatima within a larger Islamic conceptualization of the saint or holy figure. Her liminal status in close proximity to the divine grants her a potency that facilitates her continued importance to Shi'i Muslims, though her memory differs in time and place. The contexts for this discussion range from Arabia in the centuries after her death, Safavid and Qajar Persia and modern Iran, and South Asia. Memories of Fatima reflect the concerns of Shi'i communities, political and religious leaders, and individuals for whom she remains a saint; she serves as a mechanism by which holiness is accessed and communities and persons are created, consolidated, preserved, and understood. For the scholar, Fatima provides invaluable insight into creative religious change through the lens of the Shi'i Islam.

Notre étude tente à partir de la Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā’ de Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (m. 430/1038) de mieux préciser les contours de la notion de sainteté sunnite dans les trois premiers siècles de l’Islam, telle qu’elle fut construite dans la tradition hagiographique à partir de la fin du 4e/Xe siècle. La walāya (sainteté) apparaît dans la Ḥilya comme la notion centrale dans laquelle se rejoignent deux formes de piété pourtant divergentes en islamologie : la piété ascétique (zuhd) des premières générations qui exprimerait avec emphase l’obéissance à un Dieu transcendant et la piété mystique (taṣawwuf) des générations ultérieures à partir de la fin du 3e/IXe siècle qui concernerait par contraste la communion avec un Dieu immanent et révélé. Pour mieux comprendre comment Abū Nu’aym les réconcilie, nous avons cherché à déconstruire son projet de légitimation consistant à rattacher le taṣawwuf aux premiers modèles intègres de piété ascétique. Nous nous sommes efforcée particulièrement à analyser les pratiques langagières et spirituelles des premiers ascètes, pour les mettre en parallèle avec celles des mystiques des 3e/IXe et 4e/Xe siècles, et ceci, au travers de trois supports d’herméneutique : les traditions judaïsantes (isrā’iliyyāt), les exégèses coraniques et enfin la Sunna et la figure du Prophète. Il en ressort que c’est précisément dans l’expérience eschatologique que les premières générations de dévots et d’ascètes et les générations suivantes de soufis accèdent au statut de saints (awliyā’), leur attribuant la juste compréhension de la Révélation et la charge de sa transmission. / This study, based on Abū Nuʿaym’s Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā’, aims to define the contours of Islamic sainthood (walāya) during the first three centuries of Islam, as progressively defined in the hagiography from the 4th/10th century. In the Ḥilya the walāya is the central notion in which ascetic piety (zuhd) and mystic piety (taṣawwuf) meet. Current research insists on their fundamental difference, the former being characterised by the obedience to a transcendental God and the latter expressing, in contrast, the experience of communion with an immanent and revealed God. To better understand how Abu Nu’aym reconciles both notions, the study revisits and specifies his goal of legitimising taṣawwuf by linking it with the paragons of ascetic piety. The study especially strives to analyse the language and spiritual practices of the early ascetics in light of those of the mystics in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries. We have used three hermeneutic criteria : the ‘Judaising’ traditions (isrā’iliyyāt), the quranic exegesis and, lastly, the Sunna and figure of the Prophet. It emerges that the first generations of devotees and ascetics and the following generations of sufis attained, in the eschatological experience, the status of saints (awliyā’) enabling them to adequately understand and transmit the Revelation.

The thesis aims to answer the following question: how did the relationships people had with Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford between 1275 and 1282, shape the nature of his posthumous cult? The thesis rejects the idea that the veneration of saints in medieval England was politically neutral, or that their cults represented a stable, uncontentious means of resolving social discord. Instead, it posits that the invocation and memorialisation of Cantilupe was an intrinsically political act, and one that was available to ordinary people; these memories were formulated through their personal experiences of life in thirteenth century Hereford, and the people and institutions that populated it. These arguments are primarily based on evidence drawn from Cantilupe’s canonisation proceedings, particularly records and testimonies of his purported miracles. The first chapter discusses the historiography of saints’ cults in medieval Europe, and how their social function has typically been characterised, and outlines the principal sources for the thesis and how they will be used. The second chapter of this thesis takes the form of a brief biography of Cantilupe’s life and career, with a particular focus on how his actions might have affected the ways different people perceived him after his death. The third chapter enumerates the principal institutions and individuals that exercised power alongside Cantilupe in the diocese, and situates miracle recipients for whom we otherwise have little evidence within these contexts. Chapter four deals with the perspectives generated by Cantilupe’s interactions with the other lay and ecclesiastical authorities that constituted the structures of power in the diocese. Chapter five concerns the attitudes generated through direct experience of Cantilupe himself, or the way in which these attitudes were mediated by someone who did know him personally. Evidence that helps us to establish how ideas about Cantilupe were memorialised is discussed in chapter six.

Since 1986, the Catholic Our Lady of Victory (OLV) parish of Lackawanna, NY and the diocese of Buffalo have been working to secure canonization for Father Nelson H. Baker (1842-1936), founder of the North American branch of the Association of Our Lady of Victory and the OLV Basilica and Institutes, which, among other services, included a hospital, orphanage and school. Lackawanna is also the site of the Bethlehem Steel Plant closings of the early 1980s, which have come to symbolize the Buffalo region's difficult and troubled transition to a post-industrial economy. Thus, I frame my dissertation with the overall idea that the possibility of Baker's sainthood offers hope for economic recovery to the city of Lackawanna. Specifically, this work seeks to combine the study of material history with the study of lived religion by using performativity as a theoretical tool. Through a comprehensive presentation of the material history of Father Nelson H. Baker from the 1880s to 2006, I demonstrate that material history is a significant, integral and vital component of lived religion. Further, I make the case that devotional practices include creative acts that both provide evidence of Baker¹s sanctity for his cause and contribute to the performative nature of his material history. As such, this work attempts 1)to fill in a gap in the scholarship about contemporary Catholic sainthood in the U.S. by focusing on a specific cause for sainthood, 2) to further develop an understanding of the communal processes of representing sanctity,3) to offer a way of combining analyses of the built environment, material, print and visual culture with the study of lived religion, and 4) to expand the scope of scholarly approaches to Catholic devotional practices by demonstrating that in the Baker case, devotional practices involve a cooperative effort by both official and popular agents in the creation of material items to promote and further a cause. Visual materials are presented in the body of the text in JPEG format

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.

Cette thèse propose la traduction et le commentaire de la Riyāḍa et de l’Adab al-nafs d’al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, mystique sunnite khorasanien des 9ème et 10ème siècles de l’ère commune, connu pour l’impact qu’a eu son Kitāb khatm al-awliyā’ sur la pensée postérieure, celle d’Ibn ‘Arabī (m. 638/1240) en particulier. Ce sont deux manuels fondamentaux d’anthropologie spirituelle qui témoignent d’une mystique philosophique islamique ancienne assimilant des éléments de la pensée néoplatonicienne et de traditions religieuses orientales telles que le manichéisme et le bouddhisme. La systématisation du concept de sainteté (walāya) caractérise cette pensée que l’on pourrait qualifier de théosophique : dans la Riyāḍa et l’Adab sont ainsi exposées les règles de l’éducation de l’égo en vue de rétablir l’ascendant du cœur sur ce dernier, transformant le croyant en saint (walī). L’éthique de Tirmidhī se rapproche du principe bouddhiste selon lequel des actes apparemment identiques proviennent soit d’une motivation désintéressée soit d’une motivation égoïste. Le cœur, organe cognitif et organe de l’action, produit des actes conformes à la connaissance divine, tandis que l’âme s’approprie les actes pour satisfaire sa passion égoïste. L’anthropologie du Sage de Termez possède une dimension cosmologique, caractéristique elle aussi de la théosophie mystique : le saint, libéré de l’égo, voit apparaître en son cœur l’ordre divin régissant les mondes et devient ainsi lieutenant de Dieu, l’instrument d’une manifestation divine qui établit au sein de la communauté des croyants et dans le monde l’ordre de l’unicité et de la Loi que le culte de l’égo transgresse et corrompt. Les caractéristiques du saint chez Tirmidhī – sa connaissance et son pouvoir théophaniques – possèdent des correspondances évidentes avec celles attribuées à l’imam dans le shi‘isme. / This thesis proposes the translation of and commentary on the Riyāḍa and the Adab al-nafs of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, a Khorasanian Sunni mystic from the 9th and 10th centuries of the Common Era, known for the impact that his Kitāb khatm al-awliyā' had on posterior thought, that of Ibn 'Arabī (638/1240) in particular. These are two fundamental textbooks of spiritual anthropology that testify to an ancient Islamic philosophical mysticism assimilating elements of Neoplatonic thought and Eastern religious traditions such as Manichaeism and Buddhism. The systematization of the concept of holiness (walāya) characterizes this thought that could be described as theosophical: in the Riyāḍa and the Adab are thus exposed the rules of the education of the ego in order to restore the ascendancy of the heart on the latter, transforming the believer into a saint (walī). Tirmidhī's ethic is similar to the Buddhist principle that seemingly identical acts come either from selfless motivation or from a selfish motivation. The heart, the cognitive organ and the organ of action, produces acts in accordance with the knowledge of the Law and divine attributes, while the soul appropriates acts to satisfy its selfish passion. The anthropology of the sage of Termez has a cosmological dimension, also characteristic of mystical theosophy: the saint, freed from the ego, sees appearing in his heart the divine order governing the worlds and thus becomes a lieutenant of God, the instrument of a divine manifestation which establishes within the community of believers and in the world the order of Oneness (tawḥīd) and Law that the cult of the ego transgresses and corrupts. The characteristics of the saint in Tirmidhī - his theophanic knowledge and power - have obvious correspondences with those attributed to the imam in Shi'ism.

This study analyzes the contribution of Teresa de Cartagena, a deaf Spanish nun and author of the first known piece of writing by a Spanish woman. First, the work is put into its cultural and literary context. Second, the term "autohagiography," a hybrid of "autobiography" and "hagiography" is applied in order to understand that the figure that Teresa de Cartagena employs to express her spiritual fight against sadness. It is conclueded that Teresa de Cartagena constructs herself as if she were a saint, and she uses herself as a model for the faithful and the infirm.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:21:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tatiana Machado Boulhosa.pdf: 6122608 bytes, checksum: cbfa6abf071d40e1644a01f624034058 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-11-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this dissertation is to discuss comparatively the construction of the concept of sainthood based on two distinct works: The Life of St Columba, written by Adomnán, abbot of Iona, in the last decades of the 7th century and The Life of St Columban, written by Jonas of Bobbio, in the mid-7th century. In both cases it is the pursuit of the image of sainthood that gives the narrative its primary sense; therefore they can and in fact are referred to as hagiographies. However, their history cannot be fully understood if the wider context is not first comprehended. Therefore, this dissertation opens up with a sketch of the surrounding events that made them possible, that is to say, Celtic Christianity. We also aim to point out the various interpretations surrounding the phenomenon and its implications in the final shaping of a theoretical model of Medieval monastic Saints: illuminated men, withdrawn from society, capable of articulating under their wings a great number of followers, whose power flowed from their example and illustration. Such people represent part of the Medieval Imaginary, articulators of its mentality, translators in deeds as well as in words of the ways in which Medieval Society saw the world: an eternal struggle to be worthy of God´s love. Entwined both with History and Sociology, such model becomes part of the Religious Studies and ends up guiding the reading of the mentioned hagiographies, helping us understand the role these monks played during the first centuries of Christianity, not only as spiritual but also as political leaders / O objetivo dessa dissertação é discutir, de forma comparada, a construção do conceito de santidade baseado em duas obras distintas: The Life of St Columba, escrita por Adomnán, abade de Iona, nas últimas décadas do século VII e The Life of St Columban, escrita por Jonas de Bobbio, em meados do século VII. Em ambos os casos, é a busca da imagem de santidade que dá às narrativas seu sentido primário; portanto, elas podem e, de fato, devem ser chamadas de hagiografias. Entretanto, sua história não pode ser completamente entendida se o contexto mais amplo não for também compreendido. Desta forma, essa dissertação se inicia com um apanhado dos eventos ao redor desses santos que tornaram as narrativas possíveis; a saber, o Cristianismo Celta. Também objetivamos apontar as várias interpretações ao redor do fenômeno e suas implicações na forma final de um modelo teórico de santos monásticos medievais: homens iluminados, retirados da sociedade, capazes de articular sob seu domínio um grande número de seguidores, cujo poder advém de seu exemplo e sua ilustração. Tais pessoas representam parte do imaginário medieval, articuladores de sua mentalidade, tradutores em feito e em palavras das formas pelas quais a sociedade medieval vê o mundo: uma eterna luta pelo direito ao amor Divino. Imbricado entre a História e a Sociologia, tal modelo se torna parte das Ciências da Religião e termina por guiar a leitura das ditas hagiografias, ajudando a entender o papel que esses monges desempenharam durante os primeiros séculos do Cristianismo, não apenas como líderes espirituais, mas também políticos