Thomas Aquinas's Relics as Focus for Conflict and Cult in the Late Middle Ages
Title
Thomas Aquinas's Relics as Focus for Conflict and Cult in the Late Middle Ages
Subtitle
The Restless Corpse
Price
€ 141,00 excl. VAT
ISBN
9789089648730
Format
Hardback
Number of pages
308
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
15.6 x 23.4 cm
Also available as
eBook PDF - € 140,99
Table of Contents
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List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction I The Death of Thomas, 7 March 1274 II The Miraculous Body at Fossanova III Thomas's Land - Praesentia among the Faithful IV Written Remembrance of the Remains Conclusion: The Endless Story Appendix: De sancto Thome de Aquino Abbreviations Bibliography Index

Reviews and Features

"[A] lively book that abounds with fascinating detail. It is important reading for anyone interested in Aquinas’s cult or wanting a new perspective on his significance for Dominican corporate self-identity, and those seeking insight into the role of materiality in late medieval religious culture." - Antonia Fitzpatrick, St John’s College, Oxford, *The English Historical Review*, Volume 134, June 2019

Marika Räsänen

Thomas Aquinas's Relics as Focus for Conflict and Cult in the Late Middle Ages

The Restless Corpse

This book offers a new way of looking at Saint Thomas Aquinas-not as a living man, but as a posthumous source of relics. Marika Räsänen delves deep into the strange relationship between Aquinas's physical remains and the devotional moments they enabled-in many cases in situations where the actual relics were not present, but were recreated verbally, pictorially, or allegorically. Both the actual relics and these extended manifestations of them, Räsänen shows, were equally real to the medieval spectator, though the question of the material presence of Aquinas's remains became increasingly important over time amid the political tumult of southern Italy.
Author

Marika Räsänen

Dr Marika Räsänen , Post-doctoral research fellow at the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Turku.