The Devotion and Promotion of Exceptional 'Dead Bodies': Two Case Studies across the 18th and 19th Centuries

Pezzini, Andrea (5 May 2022). The Devotion and Promotion of Exceptional 'Dead Bodies': Two Case Studies across the 18th and 19th Centuries (Unpublished). In: Gazing at Death and the Dead in Western Europe, c. 1750-1950. Antwerp, Belgium. 5-6 May, 2022.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that the “heroic degree of virtues” would be the principal road to sanctity. Miracles thus began to play a complementary part – and only in the final stage of the canonization process – and the ecclesiastical institution decreased the importance of supernatural phenomena related to their human remains. Recent studies have demonstrated the model of sanctity proposed by the Holy See, a model based precisely on heroic virtues and not on exceptional corporeal phenomena. However, archival sources and hagiographical literature show that popular piety was quite sensitive to the “miraculous bodies”. Despite the changes in canonical law, the devotion to corpses continued to flourish during the 19th century. What was the role of the human remains (and their prodigies) in increasing the fama sanctitatis of the saint-to-be? How has this role changed according to the different local contexts?

In my presentation, I will focus on two “biographies” of exceptional dead bodies which have heavily influenced the devotion and the promotion of their sanctity. I will show how these corpses’ incorruption and public exposition met with particular needs of the historical-geographical context. Promotion strategies developed around the cults of these bodies linked to the interests of the religious orders to which they belonged and their delicate (often conflictual) relationship with the Holy See. The two figures I will present were both members of religious orders with a strong connection with civil power and Rome: Ignazio da Santhià (1686-1770), a Capuchin friar active in the late 18th century in Piedmont, and Vincenzo Maria Strambi (1745-1824), a Passionist bishop who lived in the Papal States during the Napoleonic invasion.

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