medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
An interesting thing about Galagano's canonisation process is that his mum Dionisia was one of the witnesses, a quite rare event, I suspect. Also interesting is that she testifies about a number of elements which Arbesmann, in his study of the vitae, dismissed as hagiographical conventions ("The Three Earliest Vitae of St Galganus", in S. Prete, ed.,
Didascaliae: Studies in Honour of Anselm M. Albareda (New York, 1961),
1-38.)
Arbesmann seems not to have been aware of the close similarities between the vitae and the depositions at the canonisation process. He dismissed as merely conventional topoi details which seem to be drawn directly from Dionisia's testimony: a vision of St Michael with which he thought the hagiographers had clothed a "severe inner crisis"; the Roman pilgrimage, perhaps "a later fiction" modelled on that of St Francis; the round hermitage, which he thinks an etiological story to explain the round church which later rose over the grave; the omens, voices and miracles which he considers merely "stock incidents of medieval hagiography", etc. Possibly these conventional elements had shaped even his mother's memories, but it is interesting that they were not the conventions of hagiographers alone. Or is it perhaps a warning to make our scepticism less automatic?
Many thanks to John Dillon for all these wonderful posts and the marvellous links to pictures. -- Paul Chandler
--
Paul Chandler, O.Carm. | Institutum Carmelitanum
via Sforza Pallavicini, 10 | 00193 - Roma | Italy
tel: +39-06-68.10.08.1 | fax: +39-06-68.30.72.00
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which is here, near St Peter's and Castel S. Angelo: <
http://tinyurl.com/r79nd> (A marks the spot)
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