medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Well, not to lower the tone of the conversation, but Thomas More in his "Dialogue Concerning Heresies" (1529) recounts the story of a newlywed couple on honeymoon in Flanders and France. A fellow pilgrim told the husband about the "many strange things" he could see at St. Walaric's (or Valery) in Picardy, a saint especially noted for curing kidney stones. More continues (in my modernized version--sorry I don't have the Middle English convenient):
"So he thought he would go somewhat out of his way either to see if it were true or to laugh at this man if he found it false, as he truly indeed thought he would. But when they came into the chapel, they found it all to be true. They found it even more foolish to behold than he had said. For just as you see wax legs or arms or other [body] parts hanging up at other pilgrimage shrines [ex votos], in that chapel all the pilgrims' offerings hung about the walls, and they were all men's and women's private gear made out of wax."
And it gets even bawdier after that.
This is from "The Complete Works of St. Thomas More," ed. T. N. C. Lawler, G. Marc=hadour, R. C. Marius (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), v. 6, pt. 1, pp. 226-234.
Best,
John
------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4534
Fax: 284-4855
www.saintmarys.edu/~hust
"Learn everything. Afterwards you will see that nothing is superfluous." -- Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141)
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 11:44:00 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [M-R] 1157 inventory from Cefalu, Sicily
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: jbugslag <[log in to unmask]>
>...most usually, genital ex votos were made of wax...
sounds kinky, Jim, but i'm curious to know what sources you might have which
speak of ex votos (or anything even vaguely sculptural) made of wax, genitalia
or otherwise.
c
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