TUCEMEMS Talk: Relics, Materiality, and the Dynamics of Deception

TUCEMEMS Talk organized together with a Workshop “Rethinking Holy Materiality: Bones and Other ‘Stuff’, With and Without Reliquaries (The Middle Ages and Beyond)”
Wednesday 10.9.2025, at 15:45–16:45. Venue: Arken Helikon, Åbo Akademi, Tehtaankatu 2 /Fabriksgatan 2

Professor Vincent Debiais (EHESS, Paris): ”See-through. Relics, Materiality, and the Dynamics of Deception”

For a zoom-link, the registration is needed: https://konsta.utu.fi/Default.aspx?tabid=88&tap=22381

Abstract: In the devotion to relics, seeing or not seeing defines the whole faithful’s attitude. Entering the sanctuary, standing in front of the reliquary, the sight and expectation are whether fulfilled or deceived. The devices – object or building – used for the presentation of relics dating from the end of the Middle Ages seem to have built on this tension between the need to look and touch the saints’ bodily remains and the impossibility to fully grasp on the subject of devotional actions, using transparency, concealment, or distraction as enhancers for the spiritual possession of relics. This lecture presents an overview of the material, sensorial, and theological questions raised by these objects, focusing primarily on reliquaries that used glass and writing to showcase the virtus of the saints.