Race and Racism in Hagiography
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Hagiography Society
Organizer Name
Felege-Selam Yirga
Organizer Affiliation
Ohio State Univ.
Presider Name
Felege-Selam Yirga
Paper Title 1
The Man of Law's Tale and Thomas Becket's Saracen Mother
Presenter 1 Name
Meriem Pagès
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Keene State College
Paper Title 2
The Ambivalence of Blackness as Portrayed in Sixteenth-Century Spanish Religious Iconography
Presenter 2 Name
María J. García Otero
Presenter 2 Affiliation
South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Paper Title 3
Racialized Flesh: The Creation of Saints Cosmas and Damian's "Miracle of the Black Leg"
Presenter 3 Name
Laura Ingallinella
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa/Medieval Academy of America
Start Date
11-5-2019 10:00 AM
Session Location
Fetzer 2040
Description
Racial differentiation in the Middle Ages has in recently received more attention, with scholars willing to question the oft-recited truism that while ethnic prejudices may have existed, race is strictly a modern concept. Yet, time and again race, as tied to black skin color, appears in hagiographic texts as a marker of morality or character. Early medieval hagiographies of Egyptian ascetic have the devil or demons appear as black boys, most famously in Athanasius’ Life of Antony. This even extends to saintly figures identified as black: Abba Moses, a black ascetic from the community of Scetis, tells the archbishop “your skin is as black as ashes. You are not a man so why should you be allowed to meet men?” Hagiography shows the different uses of racial and ethnic differentiation to construct religious and political identity, and even the ways in which the lives of holy figures aided in race-making. Barbara Zimbalist
Race and Racism in Hagiography
Fetzer 2040
Racial differentiation in the Middle Ages has in recently received more attention, with scholars willing to question the oft-recited truism that while ethnic prejudices may have existed, race is strictly a modern concept. Yet, time and again race, as tied to black skin color, appears in hagiographic texts as a marker of morality or character. Early medieval hagiographies of Egyptian ascetic have the devil or demons appear as black boys, most famously in Athanasius’ Life of Antony. This even extends to saintly figures identified as black: Abba Moses, a black ascetic from the community of Scetis, tells the archbishop “your skin is as black as ashes. You are not a man so why should you be allowed to meet men?” Hagiography shows the different uses of racial and ethnic differentiation to construct religious and political identity, and even the ways in which the lives of holy figures aided in race-making. Barbara Zimbalist