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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NeMoSanctI (New Models of Sanctity in Italy (1960s-2010s).A Semiotic Analysis of Norms, Causes of Saints, Hagiography, and Narratives)

Teaser

Summary

In cultures with a strong Catholic tradition saints represent models of life perfection, dialectically elaborated by a plurality of subjects and expressed in a thick intertextual network. Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), when the Church promoted a policy of adaptation of her tradition to the modern world, the modeling of sanctity has undergone a deep transformation. In a context of global change, new models of sanctity have assumed a central role in guiding the faithful by proposing a renewed religious alternative to growing secularization.

NeMoSanctI studies how models of sanctity have changed especially after the Second Vatican Council and their relationship with the culture of a country exemplum of strong Catholicism: Italy. To this end, it applies a pioneering semiotic method which will allows the comparative analysis of a corpus of texts of different genres:

- normative texts regulating sanctity emanating from the Church;
- judicial texts, i.e. causes of canonization of three famous Italian saints (Padre Pio, Gianna Beretta Molla, and Gerardo Maiella), with a focus on the dialectics between the models proposed by laic witnesses and by ecclesiastic inquirers;
- narrative texts, i.e. a sample of popular hagiography, of official hagiographic collections, and of Italian literary texts, where the theme of sanctity tends to be unconventionally elaborated and dissociated from Catholic values.

Despite its relevance for a deeper understanding of the role of religion in todayâ€™s culture, a systematic research on new models of sanctity and on their intertextual codification is still missing. By carrying out this research and by proposing an innovative semiotic methodology for the analysis of models of life perfection, NeMoSanctI will have a significant impact on numerous disciplines, especially semiotics, religious and cultural studies, critical studies of hagiography and canon law, literary and Italian studies.

Work performed

In the period from March 1, 2018 to August 31, 2019, the project was implemented as follows:

Study of normative texts: after a preliminary study of the normative documents codifying sanctity, the PI and team members have begun to analyze each case for sainthood designed by Catholic jurisprudence (martyrdom, heroicity of virtues, offering of life, and casus exceptus). As for martyrdom, the PI edited an issue of the international journal Lexia entitled â€œThe semiotics of martyrdomâ€ (Lexia 31-32), with papers by the PI and four team members. The PI and E. Rai submitted two papers about heroicity. The casus exceptus and the offering of life are the subjects of two papers in preparation.

Study of official hagiographic texts: the PI and G. Marino compared Martyrologium Romanum and Bibliotheca Sanctorum and wrote a paper accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Semiotica. After preliminary reflections on the Martyrologium, which has both a hagiographic and a liturgical character, the PI realized that in order to gain a more complete understanding of the Churchâ€™s official representation of saints, it was necessary to broaden the research by studying further liturgical texts, in particular litanies. A book chapter by the PI, G. Marino and F. Galofaro on this topic is forthcoming (Brepols) and. F. Galofaro also published a paper on the martyrs in the Litany of Saints in Lexia 31-32. The PI published moreover a paper in the journal Social Semiotics about the Italian priestsâ€™ interpretation of traditional liturgy, with a section showing how saints are considered as examples in shaping ritual.

Causes for canonization and popular hagiographies: we are analysing the causes for canonization and the hagiographies of Saint Gerardo Majella, Saint Pio of Pietralcina and Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, with three papers in preparation. A first exploration of the field of popular hagiographies showed that it was necessary take into consideration a plurality of genres, such as comics, ex voto, and digital texts (e.g. Internet memes with saints). The PI and the team members are currently exploring these texts and are preparing three papers and a conference panel.

In the considered period, we organized a panel at the European Academy of Religion annual conference (Bologna); a seminar at the University of Turin: a two-day symposium in cooperation with the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, and a seminar in cooperation with the CollÃ¨ge des Bernardins (Paris). We presented 16 papers in seminars and conferences in Italy, Estonia, and Great Britain. We also organized events of public engagement, e.g: two book presentations, a seminar about the symbolism of flowers in religious imagery in the framework of the European Plants Day (Turin, Botanic Garden), and a seminar about causes for canonization at a historical archive (Susa, Turin) with MA students.

Final results

NeMoSanctI intends to study new models of sanctity in their intertextual stratification: from the formulation of norms setting values and procedures, to the application of the norms in the processes of canonization, to the narrative elaboration of the lives of saints as exemplifications of the same values in hagiographic texts, to the unofficial and often unorthodox re-elaboration in Italian literature. NeMoSanctI has therefore an interdisciplinary character and can have a significant impact on numerous fields of study, in particular:

Semiotics: elaboration of an innovative method enabling researchers to carry out advanced studies on values and styles of action in texts of different genres; first step for a wider semiotic study of models of life perfection, e.g. in other religions.
Religious Studies and Cultural Studies: in-depth study of new models of sanctity emerged after the SVC; definition of the relationship between religious models proposed by the institutional/clerical authority and the models circulating in the broader culture; first semiotic analysis of canon law regulating sanctity; first systematic analysis of contemporary hagiographic collections, focusing on their paratext and narrative structures (see below); unprecedented attention devoted to a sample of texts of contemporary popular hagiography, a genre which has been widely ignored by scholars for its scarce historical and literary quality, but which is interesting for the study of the â€œdialecticsâ€ between official and popular conceptions of sanctity; analysis of a sample of causes of famous saints who had a relevant impact on contemporary culture (Padre Pio, Gianna Beretta Molla, and Gerardo Maiella).
Literary Studies and Italian Studies: unprecedented analysis of literary texts in the frame of a broader study of sanctity as a narrative model; development of a new method for the semiotic analysis of narrative texts; unprecedented analysis of models of sanctity in contemporary literature; critical reflection on the relationship between Italian literature and Catholic religion.