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Full-Text Articles in History
“Baby Donato” In Abruzzo (Italy): From A Mother’S Veneration To Popular Devotion, Lia Giancristofaro
“Baby Donato” In Abruzzo (Italy): From A Mother’S Veneration To Popular Devotion, Lia Giancristofaro
Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies
The article considers a cult that developed and still thrives in a small Abruzzo town in the years between the two world wars. During these decades, the mummified body of a baby became the object of worship and devotional practices. The epileptic Baby Donato died and after few months his body was given to the Sanctuary of St Donatus in Celenza sul Trigno. St Donatus is the saint who protects epileptics and in Italian Catholicism is therefore the master of disease. The name Donato means ‘given’ and the ailment (epilepsy) is given by the saint to his subjects in exchange …
Objectifying Love: Ladies And Their Tokens, Saints And Their Relics In Chrétien De Troyes, Lydia Hayes
Objectifying Love: Ladies And Their Tokens, Saints And Their Relics In Chrétien De Troyes, Lydia Hayes
Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality
Relics are powerful signifiers of the relationship between humanity and the divine because they allow humans to physically touch a part of a saint’s body or an extension of the saint’s body. This type of symbolism may also be found in the relationship between ladies and knights in Chrétien de Troyes’ Arthurian romances, when a part of the lady’s body (her hair, for example) or an object that once belonged to the lady is touched by the knight. The objects that represent these ladies provide their knights with some form of power at crucial stages in the romances, usually encouraging …