Class Outline

Saints and Relics:

Development of the Cult of Saints: oral and written traditions

Why saints? Hierarcical worldview; mediation (Apostles, Mary, saints);

Why relics? Participation in the Divinity and in the virtue of the Saint

Power of relics: Manifest power against demons; power to cure illness and prevent disasters; even power to convert unbelievers

Political and economic role of shrines and relics: identification of a ruler with a great saint creates unity and cohesiveness; economically the presence of relics of important saints added to the prestige and growth of churches and monasteries

Royal Colegiate Church of Saint Isidoro of León

"Eulogius and the Martyrs of Cordoba" (51-55 MI)

Reasons for martyrdom: legacy of Rome's Christian martyrs; aspects particular to Córdoba (conversions of Christians to Islam increasing)

Hagiographic elements: childhood, virginity, changes in body, miracles before and after death; signs of God's will

What does the text reveal about the attitude of the Muslims toward the martyrs?

The Harlot Saint, St. Mary of Egypt

Model: St, Mary Magdalene

Hagiographic elements: conversion, body/soul; ascetism, witnesss

Two Arguments in Support of Christian Faith: Intellectual arguments for justification

"Mozarabic Refutation of Islam" (143-147 MI)

-forms of expression influenced by Islamic culture of Al-Andalus

--attitudes towards Judaism (negative) and Islam (closer to Christianity)

--role of Bishops

--use of the Qur'ran to refute Muslim beliefs

""In support of the Trinity" (148-151 MI)

--Addressed to Muslim or Jewish audience

--Reveals Islamic influence in expression

--Essence vs acts (3 names applied to one essence: power, knowledge, will). All essential for acts to be completed

Pilgrimage:

Three great centers: Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela

"For a pilgrimage marks, or should mark, a decisive stage in the religious development of the individual who undertakes it (21) It is not for nothing that in Christian tradition the idea of journeying is associated with conversion: all pilgrimage-roads lead, at least potentially, to Damascus. Ritual immersion in the Jordan at the place where it was believed that Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist impressed upon the pilgrim to the Holy Land that he was beginning a new life. The pilgrim is stained with sin in his everyday life, but his pilgrimage is designed to take him away from the daily round. The dislocation which a journey entailed, the rupture with accustomed people and routines, were part of a process of spiritual therapy. Returned with new and contrite heart, the pilgrim should experience spiritual renewal, a closer walk with God. Prayers for the returning pilgrim will ask that 'he should not again wander from the paths of the Lord'.(22) Pilgrimage is a time for amendment of life. It is a form of initiation.[...]

[...] For the vast majority, however, the experience of pilgrimage would come in the form of a journey, long or short as the case might be, to a place, and then back home again. In western Christendom -- for we must leave on one side the obviously very special case of the Holy Places themselves -- the place was one made sacred by its association with a holy man or woman; normally the resting-place of his (or her) body. It is important to grasp that the shrine of a saint was a potentially active source of spiritual energy. Though dead in the flesh, the saint was there; a formidably powerful being who, if approached properly, could bring help to the suppliant. That is to say, the saint could work miracles. 'All sites of pilgrimage have this in common; they are believed to be places where miracles once happened, still happen, and may happen again.' (26) This is the essence of the shrine: it is 'a place where earth and heaven meet in the person of the dead, made plain by some manifestation of supernatural power, some wonderful happening'. (27) The supplication of faith -- expectant faith -- is answered in the form of a miracle. As an Irish cleric of [86] the ninth century put it, 'You will not find the King whom you seek unless you bring him with you.'(28) If miracles revealed God's power in and through his saints, they also plumbed the wells of faith within the individual suppliant; and that self-knowledge lay at the heart of the pilgrim's spiritual renewal."

From Chapter 4 "Pilgrimage and Pilgrims, to Compostela and elsewhere"  R. A. Fletcher, Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela

 Some reasons for pilgrimage:

1) Penance imposed by Church; salvation; indulgences

2) Cure illness (physical and spiritual) or resolve other disasters

3) Complete a vow or promise

4) Give thanks

The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela (137-141 MI)

What does it tell us about the dangers pilgrims faced?

Frenchman's view of the peninsula: waters, food, peoples, etc.

Maps of the Camino de Santiago