Search Results (3)

Medieval writers designated Siena as a “new city”. Seemingly confirming this assessment, the Sienese Church possessed no hagiographic tradition of early bishops that would prove that their urban settlement was a true civitas in late antiquity. As part of their effort to verify that their city had not only Roman but also early Christian origins, the Sienese, primarily spearheaded by lay officials, refashioned the image of their martyr-saint, Ansanus (d. 296). By the thirteenth century, the implication that the lay martyr had baptized the citizens was added to his second Latin passion narrative. Yet, only beginning in the fifteenth century do vernacular passions and images of Ansanus baptizing the Sienese appear, revealing that the baptismal event emerged as a defining point in the sacred history of the city and was communicated to citizens both textually and visually. These were produced at the behest of lay institutions, such as the Opera del Duomo and the communal government. By performing the sacrament of baptism, Ansanus fulfilled a crucial function of a proto-bishop, namely the transformation of the pagan Sienese into a true community of the baptized. Though some Sienese humanists sought to identify the earliest bishops, no episcopal cult was ever established. Considering that the default for other major cities in Italy was to identify and venerate their early bishops, Ansanus’s transformation into “the Baptizer” presents a case study of how saints could be adapted in unconventional ways to fix a problematic civic past. Full article

This article studies different forms of martyrdom in secular contexts, tracing their roots back to Western European Christian traditions. The article argues that distinct trajectories of martyrdom have emerged: (a) the more passive martyr, who refuses to acknowledge sovereign power and dies for a transcendent truth, and (b) the more assertive martyr, who sacrifices their life fighting for God and the sovereign. In secular contexts, this assertive martyr fights for secular ideals such as ‘freedom’ or ‘nation’ and represents the symbolic body of the sovereign. The historical distinction between divine truth and state falsehood has been turned into differentiations between democratic rule and threats like terrorism. To further study this transition, this article studies discourses following the deaths of Pim Fortuyn and Jaques Hamel, as both were strongly labeled as martyrs. This results in the final part of the article that examines the cult of commemoration surrounding soldiers in the US and the Netherlands. It argues that the assertive martyr has reached its fully secularized form in these contexts. The transcendent imagery of state sovereignty is evident in the sacrificial discourses around fallen soldiers. At this point of death, the state’s power is reinforced as a transcendent norm and reveals itself in those who ‘sacrifice’ their lives for the freedom of many. Full article

In a reading of Gryphius’ Catharina von Georgien within its political and confessional context of Silesia at the end of the Thirty Years’ War, this article analyzes the transformation of the Christian martyr cult within early modern German tragedy. It argues that Gryphius used the hagiographic type of the royal martyr as a moral example and figure of governmental order. He depicted the pious Georgian martyr Queen Catharina and her devout officials as an inspiring community of civic virtue to be imitated by his fellow Silesians. This patriotic injunction of the tragedy resonates with legal concepts of public law put forward by Gryphius’ mentor, Georg Schönborner and others. The article finds that Gryphius’ martyr tragedy must be read as an aesthetic contribution to some of the legal movements decisive for German state formation around 1650. Full article