medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Diana,
Certainly various of the works of William Christian Jr come close to this: see his 
Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain, and Local Religion in 
Sixteenth-Century Spain (both 1981), to which may be compared his earlier 
ethnographic study, Person and God in a Spanish Valley.  The essential problem for 
such a study is that folk religious practices in the Middle Ages were, for the most 
part, roundly ignored by the church, except when they became so weird that the 
church felt compelled to put its foot down.  As for Latin America, there is plenty of 
syncretism involved in folk practices, that incorporate, undoubtedly, aspects of 
medieval European folk religion with indigenous practice.  There is quite a large 
bibliography particularly on the Mexican cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe, named, of 
course, after the medieval sanctuary in Spain.  I have also just run across a 
promising reference to Michael Sallnow, Pilgrims of the Andes: Regional Cults in 
Cusco (Washington, DC, 1987).  
Bon chance,
Jim Bugslag
PS. For diehards, I append an exerpt I recently came across from a Catholic 
Journal called The Cross, published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the east coast of 
Canada, from an article of 1843 describing the building of a new cemetery, which 
makes fascinating reference to then current perceptions of the medieval folk 
phenomenon of Irish holy wells (and if anyone knows what "Tubur beneagha" 
means, please do let me know):
We should not omit the party who were laudably engaged in building a 
circular wall round a sweet little well that springs in an angle made by the 
intersection of two walks.  It reminded us so much of the “Tubur beneagha” 
at home, that we gazed upon its dark waters – with the three or four little 
steps descending to them – and the cheerful green seat around them – gazed 
on them, with something like the feelings one would have on seeing a very old 
friend.  A fig for the philosophy that destroys feeling.  It flings a pall of 
darkness over every thing bright and beautiful in nature – plucks out the 
affections of the hearts own forming – for a cheerless and sombre formality on 
which a morose misanthropy is reflected.  In spite of all their formality we will 
love an old well.  How often we have looked with awe, upon the dark hoods 
of our countrywomen hanging down over the waters, as they knelt by the old 
well’s side!  How often our eye has followed the “Pilgrim” as he counted his 
beads along the well-trodden walk, which was called the “rounds” at those 
places of religious resort!  And how often, we wondered at the votive 
memorial, which simple piety left behind it, to acknowledge the benign 
interference of the Patron, to whose honour, under God, the place was 
dedicated.  Old wells revive recollections of home.  They remind us too of 
piety which has outlived the wreck of centuries – the powerful aggression of 
successive dynasties – the insidious allurements of successive heresies – the 
scandal of successive schisms – superior to every thing, but itself, is the piety 
of Old Home.  We do love old wells.  And though scepticism may smile at the 
traditions which surround them – and infidelity contemn the abiding 
confidence of our countrymen’s simple faith – the true Christian will 
remember, that the “wise and prudent” know “infinitely less” than the “little 
ones” of the Gospel, of the influence of that trust to which all things are 
possible.

On 19 Sep 2005 at 9:27, Diana Wright wrote:

> 
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture 
> Is there anything written on the correspondences of contemporary folk religious observations to 
> what we know of the medieval?
> 
> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20050918/450day11_nicaragua.jpg
> 
> DW
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