Thomas Aquinas's relics as focus for conflict and cult in the Late Middle Ages

This book offers a unique approach to Thomas Aquinas the saint by focusing on his dead body. Thomas's corpse was not simply perceived as the physical remains of a philosopher, but as a holy relic. The remains became a focus of veneration, and yet, due to many political intrigues, the corpse was not always materially present in devotional moments. In these situations, the holy relics were recreated verbally, pictorially, or allegorically from elements that were not directly connected to Thomas's remains, even to the extent in which the presence of the corpse was perceptible by nose or mouth. Both of these praesentiae, physical and imagined, were equally real to the medieval listener or spectator. The book argues that although medieval communities were able to create the presence of Thomas's corpse by various techniques, the question of the material presence of Thomas's remains became increasingly important in the politically tumultuous southern Italy.

NB CATALOGUSTEKST CHICAGO:

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 even 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.