medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
There is a great documentary about Therese of L. and the visit of her relics to the USA earlier this decade, with title of Therese: Living on Love. I first saw it on PBS, and have used it to great effect in the classroom. It outlines the course of her life [resonating with the lives of the medieval women I assigned], explains the process of her canonization, and has really powerful scenes of modern people venerating her reliquary.
The students were riveted; I think seeing modern folk "acting medieval" [as one of them said] took them by surprise. It certainly provoked discussion! [At lot of it was productive :>)]
The DVD is available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Therese-Living-Narrated-Joe-Campanella/dp/B000MV8R70
Or I suspect it can be rented from Netflix, etc.
Elaine
Elaine M. Beretz, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Center for Visual Culture
Bryn Mawr College
101 Merion Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899
--- On Thu, 10/15/09, Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [M-R] Graceland redux - change to T of Lisieux
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009, 4:20 PM
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of
> medieval religion and culture
>
> Rosemary, I have to confess that for a long time I was
> little attracted to Thérèse of Lisieux, found her writing
> unbearable, and could not finish Story of a Soul
> despite multiple attempts. In '97 I was persuaded to
> give a series of lectures on her, had to set myself to read
> her works, and changed my mind. In spiritual terms, perhaps
> not really appropriate for discussion on this list, I think
> she is someone who allowed herself to be set free by the
> gospel. She had unusual insight and honesty (of course,
> within her limits). And she did this in the unpromising
> context of 19th-c. French bourgeois piety, simultaneously
> reactionary, artificial, anxious and self-satisfied.
> Personally, since you ask, I think this is the part of her
> story which accounts for a great deal of her modern
> popularity. She provided a way out of a dead-end that had
> been reached by Jansenist Catholicism, and people responded
> with a remarkably contagious enthusiasm.
>
>
>
>
> There are many other factors, of course. Saints are
> mirrors, and her devotees no doubt find different things
> reflected in her, from the devout and easy sentimentality of
> the little girl to the struggling faith of the dying woman
> who asks her sisters not to leave poisonous medicines
> anywhere near her.
>
>
>
>
> We've also discussed this on the MEDIEV-L list, where
> Paul Halsall said: "What has amazed and bemused
> the press here is the continued vitality of this kind of
> devotional Catholicism." No doubt that's true.
> However, we've been discussing Elvis because pilgrimages
> and the cult of relics are practised in a great variety of
> forms. Thérèse's is one of the most thriving. Over
> there I also said:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Although it is clear that Thérèse's three sisters
> (all nuns in the
> same convent) were determined that she should be canonised,
> the
> immediate popular reaction to their original attempt to
> publicise her
> story (in 1897; I think a print run of 1,000) is itself an
> extraordinary phenomenon. It's an interesting case
> study of some of the
> complex interactions of fama sanctitatis as a
> popular phenomenon and
> canonisation as a managed process
>
> .
> I like the factoid, apparently true, that she stayed a
> night in the Beau Rivage in Nice at the same time as
> Nietszche. Perhaps they met on the stairs. -- Paul
> Chandler
>
>
>
> 2009/10/15 Rosemary Hayes-Milligan
> and Andrew Milligan <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
>
>
>
>
> To bring the subject slightly
> closer to Religion, if not
> strictly medieval, are people aware of just how many
> thousands have gone to
> visit the relics of St Therese of Lisieux on their tour of
> England? I met
> someone this weekend who had nearly been crushed at
> Liverpool cathedral and, I
> gather, 2,000 an hour are queuing at Westminster
> cathedral. A look at
> people's motives (curiosity, devotion to saint, desire
> to be close to something
> holy, maybe, now, a desire to witness to reality of faith
> in 'secular world',
> ...) may help us understand our subject of study. Does,
> Paul, as a
> Carmelite, have any comment?
>
> Rosemary Hayes
>
>
> --
> Paul Chandler, O.Carm. | Institutum Carmelitanum
> via Sforza Pallavicini, 10 | 00193 - Roma | Italy
> tel: +39-06-6810.0849 | fax: +39-06-6830.7200
>
>
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> **********************************************************************
> To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion
> YOUR NAME
> to: [log in to unmask]
> To send a message to the list, address it to:
> [log in to unmask]
> To leave the list, send the message: leave
> medieval-religion
> to: [log in to unmask]
> In order to report problems or to contact the list's
> owners, write to:
> [log in to unmask]
> For further information, visit our web site:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
>
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|
