Thesis advisor: Robin Fleming / The cult of the saints and emperor cult both fulfilled similar roles in their respective societies. On the surface they appear to be drastically different institutions. In reality emperor cult and saint cult were similar religious programs, which with careful examination appear to be related. The following work discusses the remarkable similarities between the cult of saints and emperor cult, including their personnel, temples, means of establishment and promotion, and even the role each cult played in the development of their societies. After careful examination of the above mentioned subjects, it is clear that the cult of the saints was largely based on emperor cult, and that despite the drastically different religious atmospheres that each cult was based in, they were similar in all but the most obvious wasy. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

St Cuthbert's literary cult was conceived in the late seventh and early eighth century with the production of three vitae, most importantly Bede's prose Vita sancti Cuthberti. Over the ensuing centuries, the cult stimulated the production of a great wealth of hagiographic material: this thesis analyses the key Cuthbertine works that were written by his Church during a turbulent but also prosperous time, between the ninth century and the end of the twelfth. Each chapter takes as a specific focus one of these texts, using it as a basis for exploring a number of themes pertaining to the cult of St Cuthbert, wider developments in the cult of the saints, and the changing and variable uses of hagiographic and historical writing. The first chapter takes the Historia de sancto Cuthberto as an example of a text combining property records with miracles, and written episodically over a period spanning more than a century, establishing the thesis'€™ triumvirate of themes: the fluidity of texts and of the representation of saints, and the enduring power of the Cuthbertine Church. Chapter Two explores the multifaceted identity that the Cuthbertine Church sought to convey for itself in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de exordio. The third and fourth chapters focus on two highly flexible and manipulated texts, Capitula de miraculis sancti Cuthberti and Brevis relatio de sancto Cuthberto, which appear in manuscripts together, and often amalgamated: they are used to examine how a saint's image could be changed, and to question our often static notion of a text'€™s identity. The final chapter takes Reginald's Libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus to compare the miracle profiles of all the Cuthbertine texts, contextualising them with formative studies in the cult of saints such as the work of Sigal (1985) and Vauchez (1981). The thesis ends by suggesting that Cuthbert's cult was still thriving at the end of the twelfth century, and continued to do so, in the semi-independent socio-political and cultural sphere of northern England and southern Scotland. The discussions in these chapters are supplemented by four appendices: a table giving detailed synopses and a thematic breakdown of Reginald's Libellus, and a table categorising and comparing the miracles that appear in all these Cuthbertine works provide the basis for exploring Cuthbert'€™s changing miraculous persona; a map charting the locations pertinent to Reginald's Libellus shows the vibrant geographical extent of Cuthbert'™s cult; a table of manuscripts illustrates the various permutations into which these texts may be worked.

Notre étude porte sur le développement du culte d’Hélène à l’époque carolingienne. Si la fin de l’antiquité et l’époque des royaumes barbares gardèrent le souvenir de la mère de Constantin, en particulier dans les sphères politiques, l’élaboration de sa légende fut progressive, connut plusieurs versions, parfois contradictoires et l’impératrice ne reçut pas de culte avant la deuxième moitié du IXe siècle. Bien que la ville de Rome se souvienne des bienfaits et des constructions de la sainte, ce n’est pas là que son culte fut fondé mais en Champagne. Il s’agit donc d’étudier comment l’époque carolingienne constitue un moment particulièrement favorable à la redécouverte de cette pieuse femme, proche du pouvoir. L’édition du dossier hagiographique produit à cette époque en Champagne par le moine Almanne d’Hautvillers constitue le point de départ de notre recherche tant ce texte semble central à la diffusion de ce nouveau culte. Il résume également l’ensemble des enjeux qui gravitent autour du personnage. Car les raisons d’évoquer Hélène sont nombreuses : culte de la Croix, modèle de sainteté féminine, définition du pouvoir impérial, pratique du queenship, questionnement sur l’authentification des reliques et leur déplacement, quête de légitimité ou de primauté. Le culte est ainsi réinterprété en fonction des besoins des régions qui se l’approprient, à Trèves, à Cologne ou encore en Angleterre. / Our study focuses on the development of the cult of Helena in the Carolingian period. If the end of antiquity and the time of the barbarian kingdoms kept the memory of the mother of Constantine, particularly in the political sphere, the development of her legend was progressive, it went through several versions, sometimes contradictory and the Empress received no worship before the second half of the ninth century. Although the city of Rome remembered the benefits and constructions of the saint, her cult wasn’t founded there but in Champagne. The point is to study how the Carolingian period was therefore a particularly favorable time to rediscover this pious woman, and her vicinity with power. Publishing the hagiographical works produced at that time in Champagne by the monk Almannus of Hautvillers is the starting point of our research since that text appears central to the spread of this new cult. It also summarizes all the issues that revolve around the character. For the reasons to mention Helena are numerous: worshipping the Cross, modeling feminine holiness, defining the imperial power, practicing queenship, questioning the authentication of relics and their displacement, seeking legitimacy or primacy. Worshipping Helena is thus reinterpreted according to the needs of the regions that appropriate her, in Trier, in Cologne or in England.

This thesis examines the Templo Santa Muerte in Los Angeles, a small, loosely organized spiritual group dedicated to the veneration of La Santa Muerte, or the Holy Death. Although originating in the urban barrios (neighborhoods) of Mexico City, Santa Muerte is now venerated in the southwestern United States as well, primarily among working-class Mexican Americans. Although Santa Muerte has been condemned by the Catholic clergy and vilified in mass media and popular culture for its ties to crime and gang violence, my fieldwork at the Templo Santa Muerte demonstrates that not all devotees of Santa Muerte can be characterized in this way. For Templo members, Santa Muerte is foremost a supernatural instrument whose appeal is in large part derived from her singular commitment to satisfying their corporeal needs and material wishes. While this quality is also attributed to many Catholic saints, Santa Muerte is believed to operate independently of Church orthodoxy and is viewed to be more powerful because of this. The Templo Santa Muerte, on the other hand, incorporates some features of formal Catholic liturgy while simultaneously organizing its services around the individual petitions of its members. In doing so, the Templo’s founders maintain an effective balance between liturgical features familiar to their mostly Catholic members and the fundamentally instrumental relationship they have with Santa Muerte. I argue that this balance is central to the appeal of the Templo and to the logic of its founders, who took advantage of the tolerant and diverse cultural atmosphere of Los Angeles to establish a spiritual enterprise that is truly the first of its kind. My methodology and theoretical approach acknowledges this, favoring an ethnographic examination grounded in respondent testimonies, direct observations, and relevant ethnohistorical interpretations of the symbolism and ritual behavior associated with Santa Muerte. At its most general, my analysis of the cult and Templo of Santa Muerte is framed around three separate but mutually interactive and informative dimensions: the instrumental and social manifestations of the cult and Templo, respectively, and the structuring influence that Catholic soteriology and cultural materialism exerts over both.

Ce mémoire porte sur la continuité des rituels divinatoires païens dans le cadre du culte chrétien en Gaule du IVe au VIe siècle. Il comporte une introduction rapportant notre problématique, notre terminologie, notre méthodologie ainsi que nos sources principales. Par la suite, le développement aborde les rites divinatoires des Sortes Sanctorum, des Sortes Sangallenses et les rites d’incubation dans le culte de Saint Martin de Tours. Pour chacun de ces cas, nous étudions leur provenance, leurs sources, leur déroulement, leur évolution et les similarités qui permettent de faire un lien avec des rituels païens déjà existants. Nous avons vérifié l’existence de cette continuité et déterminé qu’elle passait par plusieurs phénomènes, l’acculturation gauloise des rituels gréco-romains, l’importation de rites christianisés en Orient et l’assimilation des pratiques païennes locales par le culte chrétien pour répondre à une demande de divination par la population. / This Masters’ thesis concerns itself with the continuity of pagan divination rituals within the new context of the Christianized Gaul of the IVth to VIth centuries. It is composed of an introduction detailing our hypothesis, terminology, methodology and sources. Afterwards, we study three cases of divination rituals, the Sortes Sanctorum, the Sortes Sangallenses and the incubations within the cult of St. Martin of Tours. We detail their origins, sources, proceedings, evolution and the similarities linking them to previously existing pagan rites. In conclusion, we synthesize all elements and we were able to draw from our cases to establish the continuity of these rituals by several means, the Gallic acculturation of Greco-Roman rituals, importation of Christianized rituals from the East of the Empire and assimilation of local pagan practices within the Christian religion to answer the popular demand for divination.

Constantin, grâce à sa prise de pouvoir au début du IVe siècle, permettra l'essor d'un nouveau type de dévotion, consacré aux hommes et aux femmes ayant rendu l'âme en défendant leur ferveur pour le Christ et son Père. Ainsi, Laurent, persécuté à Rome en l'an 258, deviendra au siècle suivant la figure prédominante du martyre dans la ville éternelle. Ce mémoire cherche à comprendre comment se développera son culte et quelles sont les raisons qui mèneront son martyre à la primauté dans la capitale romaine. En étudiant les sources littéraires et épigraphiques, notamment sous la plume de Damase, Ambroise, Prudence et Augustin, ainsi qu'en explorant les informations archéologiques sur la construction d'églises dévouées à Laurent, nous en sommes venus à la conclusion que le martyr romain a contribué à la création d'une mémoire collective chrétienne qui correspondait au besoin identitaire de l'Urbs, dans ce passage d'un empire « païen » à un empire chrétien. Cette création d'une mémoire collective repose sur la sacralisation du territoire par l’empereur Constantin et l’évêque romain Damase, l’introduction de nouveaux rituels et dans la foulée, de l’instrumentalisation de Laurent et du culte des saints par les auteurs anciens dans leur élaboration de l’identité chrétienne de la ville de Rome. / Constantine, with his seize of power in the early fourth century, has allowed the growth of a new form of devotion dedicated to the men and women tormented because of their beliefs in Christ and his Holy Father. Thereby, Lawrence, persecuted in 258 A.D. in Rome, has become the main figure of martyrdom in the Eternal City during the following century. This master's thesis aims at comprehending how the cult of Lawrence's unfolded and why it became the predominant martyr cult in the Roman capital. By studying literary and epigraphic sources, especially Damasus, Ambrose, Augustine and Prudence, as well as the archaeological data on the construction of the churches dedicated to Lawrence, we came to the conclusion that the Roman martyr helped establish a Christian collective memory corresponding to the identity needs of the Urbs in this period characterized by the passage of a "pagan" empire to a Christian empire. This creation of a collective memory is based on the sacralisation of the roman territory by the emperor Constantine and the roman bishop Damasus, on the introduction of new rituals and on the instrumentation of Lawrence and the cult of the saints by the ancient writers in their elaboration of a Christian identity for the city of Rome.

The work deals with the dissemination, duration, transformations and reception of the cult of an important Jesuit Saint, St. Francis Xavier, in the early modern Czech lands. Its goal is to contribute to the better understanding of the reality of the re-catholicization after the Battle of White Montain and the forms of Czech spirituality of the 17th and 18th century. This particular cult was selected because of the fact that St. Francis Xavier was closely related to the main (or most prominent) participant of the re-catholicization, i. e. the Jesuit order, where he in the informal hierarchy of Saints occupied the second place immediately after the founder of the Society St. Ignacius of Loyola. Moreover, St. Francis Xavier belonged among the five new Catholic Saints canonized in 1622 (St. Ignacius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Philipp Neri, and St. Isidore of Madrid), who represented an important constituent of the revived post-Tridentine Catholic spirituality. However, although the existing secondary literature presupposes that the reverence to St. Francis Xavier was widespread in the Czech Baroque, no systematic study of this theme was realized untill now. First chapter deals with the specification of the theme of the work, maps existing knowledge and sources available and...