Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
Trade Review"[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
Table of ContentsList 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
