Marked Bodies, Divine Remnants

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Hagiography Society

Organizer Name

Stephanie Grace-Petinos

Organizer Affiliation

Western Carolina Univ.

Presider Name

Stephanie Grace-Petinos

Paper Title 1

Tracing Totality: Medieval Scars and the Persistence of Presence

Presenter 1 Name

Kathryn Dickason

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Southern California

Paper Title 2

From Holy Flesh to Holy Houses: The Rise of Non-Corporeal Relics in the March of Ancona, 1350-1400

Presenter 2 Name

Bianca Lopez

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Southern Methodist Univ.

Paper Title 3

The Dual Bodies of Christ: Cross as Corpse in The Dream of the Rood

Presenter 3 Name

Jessica E. Troy (Univ. of New Mexico Graduate Student Prize Winner)

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of New Mexico

Start Date

10-5-2019 3:30 PM

Session Location

Sangren 1730

Description

In many vitae, the saint’s marked flesh serves as proof of God’s privilege. The divine remnants imprinted upon a saint’s body could take many forms, such as scars, stigmata, suffering, and even healing. After death, saints continued their embodied demarcation as relics, material remnants capable of channeling the divine through division, enshrinement, veneration, and circulation. This panel explores how hagiography represents the divine upon saints’ bodies. Questions include: What is the relationship between sainthood and physicality? How does a saint’s divinely marked body juxtapose the sacred and the secular? What is the role of disability, gender, and/or race? What role does performance, spectacle, and/or audience play? What limits, transgressions, or paradoxes does a marked body illuminate? Barbara Zimbalist