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
Marked Bodies, Divine Remnants
Sangren 1730
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