Programme “Rethinking Holy Materiality: Bones and Other ‘Stuff’

Rethinking Holy Materiality: Bones and Other ‘Stuff’, With and Without Reliquaries (The Middle Ages and Beyond)

Venues: University of Turku & Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

Wednesday 10.9.2025

Venue: Arcanum, ARC A 112, University of Turku

13:15 Welcome

Marika Räsänen and Päivi Salmesvuori

13:30–15:00 I group of presentations

Sacred earth, sacred objects: The production of loca Sancta Agnus Dei in the seventeenth-Century Franciscan custody of the Holy Land.
Mattia Corso, University of Roma Tre

Relics in Place and Relics as Place in Later Medieval Pilgrimage Accounts.
Pelia Werth, Johns Hopkins University

Carthusian corpses: Later Medieval literary presences and actual tombs.
Stephen J. Molvarec, SJ, Boston College

15:00–15:30 Coffee break

Venue: Arken Helikon, Åbo Akademi, Tehtaankatu 2 /Fabriksgatan 2

15:45–16:45 Keynote

See-through. Relics, Materiality, and the Dynamics of Deception
Professor Vincent Debiais, EHESS, Paris
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Thursday 11.9.2025

Venue: Arcanum, ARC A 112, University of Turku

9:00–10:30 II group of presentations

Relics and the emotional labor of colonization
Claire Becker, University of Rochester

Early modern Habsburgs and the holy supernatural ca 1500 – 1550
Tupu Ylä-Anttila, independent researcher.

A Mediator and His Medal: The Case of Giovanni Antonio Gabuti (1551–1621) and the Canonization of St Carlo Borromeo Jenni Kuuliala, University of Turku.

10:30–11:00 Coffee break

11:00–12:30 III group of presentations

You Touched my Heart: Emotion and touch in the making of relics
Sarah Wood-Gagnon, University of Rochester

“We touch heaven when we lay our hand on a human body”: The translation of saint Edmund’s body in Carlyle’s Past and Present (1843)
Deborah Prang, University of Turku

Images as relics. Manifestations of saintly presence in the monastery of Montecassino, 11th–12th centuries
Teemu Immonen, University of Turku

12:30–14:00 Lunch break

Venue: Annexet, Theologicum, Åbo Akademi, Piispankatu 16/Biskopsgatan 16

14:00–16:00 IV group of presentations

Secondary reliquaries: Sculptures with niches for relics in the late medieval Finland
Sofia Lahti, Åbo Akademi University & Elina Räsänen, University of Helsinki

Hybrid materialities and identities. Rethinking relics, reliquaries and devotional diptychs from communities of women religious
Mercedes Pérez Vidal, Autonomous University of Madrid

The drinking bowl of Saint Francis of Assisi: A medieval artefact still in use
Jeroen Reyniers, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), Brussels

Contactless and self-reproducing relics in late Middle Ages.
Marika Räsänen, University of Turku

16:00–16:30 Closing discussion

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Organizers, and more information: Docent Marika Räsänen (marika.rasanen@utu.fi) & Professor Päivi Salmesvuori (paivi.salmesvuori@abo.fi), Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies & Department of Church History, Åbo Akademi University

Sponsors: The project “Rethinking the Late Medieval Relic (c. 1200–1550)”, the Research Council of Finland, University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University, and The Polin Institute.

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Image: Crown reliquary at the collection of Louvre, photographed by M. Räsänen