Bill Christian's research has pointed up the 'performative' aspects in
'miraculous' discoveries of religious images and traditions of votive
chapel-building in Spain. It's possible to discover on the ground in Catalonia
how in some areas such 'performance' added up to appropriation of pre-existing
devotions and/or religious structures. Repetition of conventional motifs in the
documents, particularly in notarial records post-Trent, indicates an attempt at
legitimisation also, perhaps. Is there an echo here of Patrick's interpretation
of what 'miracles' in an earlier age were often about? (cf also work on modern
visionaries). But not everyone's up to performance, which by definition
involves 'putting on an act'. For the mass of the laity, invocation for specific
ailments was/is real enough (desperation stakes, as likely as not), making a
certain amount of 'medicalising' inescapable for people like me who are
interested in what's involved in choosing one saint as against another.
Tom Izbicki wrote:
>Also, on a related theme,appearances of the Virgin, see:
> >William A.Christian, Apparitions in late Medieval and renaissance Spain
>(Princeton UP, 1981).
>
> ps I remember reading some articles "medicalizing" Theresa of Avila.
> Also, an article interpreting Thomas Aquinas as a stroke victim.
>
Graham Jones
Leicester
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|