Hagiography Afternoon: papers and works-in-progress

The project Rethinking the Late Medieval Relic and the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies are jointly organizing a workshop focused on hagiographical sources and their research methods. The keynote will be delivered by Thomas Devaney, Associate Professor at the University of Rochester, and scholars at various stages of their careers—from MA students to senior researchers—will present their work-in-progress.

We warmly welcome you to join us!

For the registration, please contact the organiser, Marika Räsänen

Hagiography Afternoon: papers and work-in-progress

September, 17, 2024

Venues: Loisto (A229) and Black Box, Arcanum, University of Turku

First session at Loisto
13:00–14:00 (coffee and tea available)

Welcome, Marika Räsänen

Thomas Devaney (key-note presentation):
“Piety, Probability, Practice, and the Public: Reading Early Modern Miracle Stories”
Chaired by Sari Katajala-Peltomaa

Abstract: Although they followed medieval models in many respects, early modern printed collections of miracle stories differed from their antecedents in terms of their accessibility. The relative affordability of these books provided authorities with the opportunity to reach a broad lay readership. There has been a great deal of research on the resulting production of books meant to instruct the faithful in proper belief and practice. These were certainly popular, but we understand little about how these books were received, whether and to what degree their intended audiences understood, drew meaning from, and acted upon what they read. In this talk, I suggest that close study of contemporary reading practices can shed light on this question of reception. Though we will rarely be able to know with certainty how an individual reader reacted to a specific text, we can begin to narrow the range of possible responses and so better interpret the exchange of ideas between author and audience.

Pause

Second session at Black Box, chaired by Marika
14:15-15:15 three mini-presentations, 10+10 minutes each

Jutta Laitila: “Heremus urbis – Rhetoric of the City in St. Jerome’sVitae of Female Ascetics”
Petra Uusimaa: “On the quest to find the models of asceticism in the Late Medieval Italian hagiographies”
Teemu Immonen: “Water in the pictorial hagiography on Saint Benedict”

Short pause

Third session at Black Box, chaired by Sari
15:20-16:00 two mini-presentations, 10+10 minutes each

Sara Karuneva: “Perceptions of space in 11th century Canterbury Cathedral: combining space syntax and hagiographical analysis”
Tommi Suomalainen: “The legacy of bishop Herbert Losinga on the hagiography of saint William of Norwich”

Short pause

Fourth session at Black Box, chaired by Tom
16:10-16:50 two mini-presentatios

Vittoria Magnoler: “Hagiography as a means of reconciliation between mysticism and magisterium? The figure of Thomas Aquinas in Tocco’s Ystoria”
Jenni Kuuliala: ”What is a miracle, after all? Elite witnesses and the construction of miraculous cure in the canonization process of St Carlo Borromeo”