The saints of Rome have always been among the most venerated and the most popular heavenly patrons in Christendom, grafting the noble air of universality and integration onto emerging Christian cultures. From the apostles and Early Christian martyrs through the Early Modern period and beyond, the textual and material  dissemination of Roman saints made a significant impact on the rise of the cult of the saints. Post-Tridentine Roman cults spread by the Society of Jesus and  the revival of catacomb cults  brought a new  wave in the world-wide  cult of the saints of Rome in the early modern period.

October 4-6, 2017

Argument

The saints of Rome have always been among the most venerated and the most popular heavenly patrons in Christendom, grafting the noble air of universality and integration onto emerging Christian cultures. From the apostles and Early Christian martyrs through the Early Modern period and beyond, the textual and material  dissemination of Roman saints made a significant impact on the rise of the cult of the saints.  Saints living in Rome (from  Bridget of Sweden to Catherine of Siena and  from Francesca Ponziani to Filippo Neri) were role models all over the Christian world. Post-Tridentine Roman cults spread by the Society of Jesus and  the revival of catacomb cults  brought a new  wave in the world-wide  cult of the saints of Rome in the early modern period.  

 What  strategies, mechanisms and considerations informed the spread of  the cult of the saints of Rome? Who were the actors: Roman ecclesiastical hierarchy or local communities? How did these cults transform through local reception in diverse local contexts? How did  pilgrimages and Jubilees promote  the cults of Roman saints ? Did „Romanness“ assure efficacious links with the centre of Christendom or possess a symbolical meaning? In what ways did the saints of Rome impact local saints‘ cults?  

The conference aims at discussing the ways in which the cults of the saints of Rome were accepted and negotiated, defined and redefined over the centuries in Latin Christianity. What is the politics of the export and import of Roman saints? To what extent do Roman saints shape and define medieval and Early Modern Latin culture in the new Christianities of Europe, Asia, and America?  Does the export of the saints conform to individual and regional interests or rather to the political and cultural agenda of the papacy? Inquiries on these issues in various media (texts, images, relics, devotional objects and architecture, liturgy, music) are welcome.We invite papers dealing with the genesis and expansion of Roman saints‘ cults from the fourth to the seventeenth century focusing on, but not limited to topics such as:

• the politics  (mechanisms and goals) of the diffusion of Roman saints‘ cults in Latin Christianity and beyond
• impresarios of the promotion of Roman saints‘ cults
• the means of diffusion – art, liturgy, relics
• intra- and inter-regional influences, the transfer of models of sainthood
• the transformation of Roman saints abroad and the dynamics of territorial differences
• the creation of a Roman identity for foreign saints 

Submission guildelines

Please send your 300-word abstract of a 20-minutes paper

by 15 March 2017

to: sanctiromae@gmail.com

Notifications about acceptance will be sent out by 30 March.

The official language of the conference is English.

Practical information

A registration fee of 70 euros/person will be requested to cover the costs of the information package and the conference dinner. A cocktail reception will be offered by the Hungarian Academy in Rome. Conference participants will be provided with contacts for accommodation at conference prices close to our  venue, but are kindly asked to arrange the booking on their own.

The proceedings will be published in the Hagiotheca Series Colloquia by the Croatian Hagiography Society.

Organisation commitee

• Gábor Klaniczay (Central European University – Hungarian Hagiography Society)
• Ana Marinković (University of Zagreb – Croatian Hagiography Society ‘Hagiotheca‘)
• Marianne Sághy (Central European University – Hungarian Hagiography Society)
• Trpimir Vedriš (University of Zagreb – Croatian Hagiography Society ‘Hagiotheca‘)