Rich Man, Poor Man: The radical visions of St. Francis

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmB6FzLTmUjVB92uwKAN5q6_W5dzxLs6ZxiQ3mg5VP6dasKjmRG98hui5qCq_mi97IJKDeAHYtlS-YJnUdUr71BBtdf0ZdQL8-inDlMSKG0kBC4YKep-SqTTf6ryfo9q6FQEzXSuuDqs/s1600/francis-of-assisi-the-life-and-afterlife-of-a-medieval-saint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmB6FzLTmUjVB92uwKAN5q6_W5dzxLs6ZxiQ3mg5VP6dasKjmRG98hui5qCq_mi97IJKDeAHYtlS-YJnUdUr71BBtdf0ZdQL8-inDlMSKG0kBC4YKep-SqTTf6ryfo9q6FQEzXSuuDqs/s320/francis-of-assisi-the-life-and-afterlife-of-a-medieval-saint.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>“Why you?” a man asked Francesco di Bernardone, known to us now as St. Francis of Assisi. Francis (1181/2-1226) was scrawny and plain-looking. He wore a filthy tunic, with a piece of rope as a belt, and no shoes. While preaching, he often would dance, weep, make animal sounds, strip to his underwear, or play the zither. His black eyes sparkled. Many people regarded him as mad, or dangerous. They threw dirt at him. Women locked themselves in their houses.<br /><br />Francis accepted all this serenely, and the qualities that at the beginning had marked him as an eccentric eventually made him seem holy. His words, one writer said, were “soothing, burning, and penetrating.” He had a way of “making his whole body a tongue.” Now, when he arrived in a town, church bells rang. People stole the water in which he had washed his feet; it was said to cure sick cows.<br /><br />Years before he died, Francis was considered a saint, and in eight centuries he has lost none of his prestige. Apart from the Virgin Mary, he is the best known and the most honored of Catholic saints. In 1986, when Pope John Paul II organized a conference of world religious leaders to promote peace, he held it in Assisi. Francis is especially loved by partisans of leftist causes: the animal-rights movement, feminism, ecology, vegetarianism (though he was not a vegetarian). But you don’t have to be on the left to love Francis. He is the patron saint (with Catherine and Bernardino of Siena) of the nation of Italy.<br /><br />Consequently, a vast number of books have been written about him. The first of the biographies appeared a few years after his death, and they’ve been coming ever since. Two more have recently appeared in English. One, <i>Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint </i>(Yale), is by André Vauchez, a professor emeritus of medieval studies at the University of Paris. The book appeared in France in 2009 and has now been published in English, in a translation by Michael F. Cusato. The other volume, <i>Francis of Assisi: A New Biography </i>(Cornell), is by Augustine Thompson, a Dominican priest and professor of history at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The two books show that the Church is still trembling from the impact of this great reformer.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/01/14/130114crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the New Yorker Magazine</a></b><br /> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0300178948&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0801450705&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Rich Man, Poor Man: The radical visions of St. Francis

“Why you?” a man asked Francesco di Bernardone, known to us now as St. Francis of Assisi. Francis (1181/2-1226) was scrawny and plain-lookin...

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Hildegard of Bingen's music gets modern twist in new album

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHEjOdjmbefz3yvA1eKCuVLYDjywEQI0nI0CRiUN8g_n0uVJkqYQssCsG4uxGq4lhyXKgODJIq-c3FVvFyf6rZe8zlREJ8lTCqlpCYvxNW-EGz6HoBRL92JZacFDd58YGdB6LzxiEdBCQ/s1600/hildegard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHEjOdjmbefz3yvA1eKCuVLYDjywEQI0nI0CRiUN8g_n0uVJkqYQssCsG4uxGq4lhyXKgODJIq-c3FVvFyf6rZe8zlREJ8lTCqlpCYvxNW-EGz6HoBRL92JZacFDd58YGdB6LzxiEdBCQ/s1600/hildegard.jpg" /></a></div>A medieval nun is poised to become an unlikely chart star after her liturgical chants were transformed into music by Madonna’s record producer.<br /><br />A series of compositions by Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine abbess who died in 1179, have been released as an album, the Telegraph reported.<br /><br />The producer, Guy Sigsworth, has reworked them to create “ambient remixes.”<br /><br />Sigsworth is a classically trained musician known for his work with Madonna, Britney Spears and Seal.<br /><br />The album, Hildegard, is being released by Decca and industry experts predict it will become a chart success.<br /><br />Sigsworth worked with Stevie Wishart, a composer who studied medieval music and has long been fascinated by Hildegard’s compositions.<br /> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=9lZzlkNjrfClWspxO_iBoGKzK_1tkCET&width=560&video_pcode=RvbGU6Z74XE_a3bj4QwRGByhq9h2&deepLinkEmbedCode=9lZzlkNjrfClWspxO_iBoGKzK_1tkCET&height=315"></script> <br /><b><a href="http://truthdive.com/2012/10/27/Medieval-nun-s-chants-given-modern-twist-and-released-as-album.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Truthdrive</a></b><br /><br />See also <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/9634156/Hildegard-Sinfonye-classical-album-of-the-week.html" target="_blank">Hildegard, Sinfonye, classical album of the week</a></b><br /> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0091HVMKU&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Hildegard of Bingen's music gets modern twist in new album

A medieval nun is poised to become an unlikely chart star after her liturgical chants were transformed into music by Madonna’s record produc...

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Monastery where Christian saint was martyred is uncovered on Scottish Island

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCjn7XoQZxIl5YsL1KRZlZWFI8ZZ2o-gp0BYX2GCE55PGNwkDjessly5qjKFsY4yzQgd0LRJD6r6CDXsUDDKRRFAWL4E66xiFeLwIYozDX6vXN342yO9ZYcqnK7DhY1iFZdDY5XDtQRw/s1600/Eigg_island.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCjn7XoQZxIl5YsL1KRZlZWFI8ZZ2o-gp0BYX2GCE55PGNwkDjessly5qjKFsY4yzQgd0LRJD6r6CDXsUDDKRRFAWL4E66xiFeLwIYozDX6vXN342yO9ZYcqnK7DhY1iFZdDY5XDtQRw/s320/Eigg_island.jpeg" width="206" /></a></div>An archaeological dig on a Scottish island has unearthed the remains of what is thought to be a monastery founded by one of the country’s first Christian saints.<br /><br /> St Donnan brought Christianity to many places in the West Highlands in the seventh century before settling on Eigg. According to local folklore, he became a martyr after he was killed by Norsemen, along with 50 monks, while giving Mass on Easter Sunday in the year 617.<br /><br /> Eigg History Society won £17,500 of Heritage Lottery funding to carry out an archaeological excavation on the island in an effort to locate St Donnan’s monastery. The dig at Kildonnan Graveyard on the south-east side of the island has now uncovered evidence which experts believe shows it is the exact site.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/monastery-where-christian-saint-was-martyred-is-uncovered-on-eigg-1-2465868" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article from The Scotsman</a></b>

Monastery where Christian saint was martyred is uncovered on Scottish Island

An archaeological dig on a Scottish island has unearthed the remains of what is thought to be a monastery founded by one of the country’s fi...

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Future Saint as Medieval Superhero

In Siena's Pinocateca Nazionale museum, four chairs have been placed in a row in front of Simone Martini's Altarpiece of Blessed Agostino Novello (c. 1328). Presumably, this is to give viewers in what is perhaps the best art-museum bargain in Europe—five euros ($6) for a gander in relative solitude at a trove of great Sienese art—a chance to relax and really ponder what is, in my opinion, the museum's masterpiece.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpO6644JiIx_mw9HtxjLkmlEPhHNjeLjBU_d4bcnOqGnQootifcHBQEjoE2eP3T0fh-faAoxTxmMq70-XbrX6RcDV3g1SPY_tAAiqQpI_cBa3KadzQgV1CAUnI2cEz7fQobQE-yL0DOIM/s1600/Simone_Martini_-_Blessed_Agostino_Novello_Altarpiece_-_WGA21422.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpO6644JiIx_mw9HtxjLkmlEPhHNjeLjBU_d4bcnOqGnQootifcHBQEjoE2eP3T0fh-faAoxTxmMq70-XbrX6RcDV3g1SPY_tAAiqQpI_cBa3KadzQgV1CAUnI2cEz7fQobQE-yL0DOIM/s400/Simone_Martini_-_Blessed_Agostino_Novello_Altarpiece_-_WGA21422.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> Martini (b. 1284) was one of the most prominent figures in the "Siena school" of painting which, according to conventional art history, was less connected to the beginning of the Italian Renaissance and more an early part of something called "International Gothic"—which began in the 14th century and ended early in the 15th century—and was inferior to the rational, perspectival realism (what we generally refer to as "naturalism") of the larger, neighboring city of Florence. Sienese painting waxed mystical, went in for out-of-proportion figures in physically jumbled (but narratively quite coherent) spaces, and specialized in crisp juxtapositions of colors often so subtle that it's hard to find names for them.<br /><br /> In 1315, Martini completed a huge fresco of the Maestà (the Virgin and Jesus being admired by all the saints) in the Palazzo Pubblico, the town hall of Siena's experiment in democratic government that lasted about 70 years before the Black Death killed more than half the city's population in 1348. After finishing his fresco, Martini went off to Naples and didn't return to Siena for a decade. When he did, the city had grown precipitously to a population of 50,000 (it's all of 54,000 today), and the Augustinian order of monks was ready to commission an altarpiece for its beloved future saint, Agostino Novello.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577475101874219964.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the Wall Street Journal</a></b>

Future Saint as Medieval Superhero

In Siena's Pinocateca Nazionale museum, four chairs have been placed in a row in front of Simone Martini's Altarpiece of Blessed Ago...

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Research examines the ‘abortionist saints’ of medieval Ireland

A recent article on sexuality and childbirth in early medieval Ireland reveals some surprising attitudes towards abortion held among the Christians during this period, and that hagiographical texts recount four Irish saints performing abortions.<br /><br /> 'Of Vanishing Fetuses and Maidens Made-Again: Abortion, Restored Virginity, and Similar Scenarios in Medieval Irish Hagiography and Penitentials', by Maeve Callan, appears in the latest issue of the<i> Journal of the History of Sexuality</i>. Callan examines a wide range of hagiographical works and other sources from medieval Ireland. She writes, “these accounts celebrate saints who perform abortions, restore female fornicators to a virginal state, contemplate infanticide, and result from incest and other ‘illegitimate’ sexual unions. Moreover, the texts themselves generally reflect a remarkably permissive attitude toward these traditionally taboo acts, an attitude also found in Irish penitentials and law codes.”<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/06/07/research-examines-the-abortionist-saints-of-medieval-ireland/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b>

Research examines the ‘abortionist saints’ of medieval Ireland

A recent article on sexuality and childbirth in early medieval Ireland reveals some surprising attitudes towards abortion held among the Chr...

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Thomas Becket by John Guy: review

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9HymsGaJKwm5z0tlMIbZJXQgHHUluWLGJDrRRdZuh1eJH1bB1Od9wwaZqRSVsaFq8E41n7PAaAl47Bu2MxO06QhX8haOUE6x6iCDp8iWg5d_PFuLO5lOSwfjxupd9SIvx9QlDlUw5D8/s1600/13152216.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9HymsGaJKwm5z0tlMIbZJXQgHHUluWLGJDrRRdZuh1eJH1bB1Od9wwaZqRSVsaFq8E41n7PAaAl47Bu2MxO06QhX8haOUE6x6iCDp8iWg5d_PFuLO5lOSwfjxupd9SIvx9QlDlUw5D8/s320/13152216.jpeg" width="214" /></a></div>Few figures in medieval history are as famous as Thomas Becket, and fewer have been subject to such utterly differing interpretations. To pious Englishmen up to the Reformation, he was a miracle-working saint, whose blood (widely available in diluted form) could heal lepers, make the blind see, and raise babies from the dead. To Henry VIII, who closed down the shrine at Canterbury and had his bones burned, he was “a rebel and traitor to his prince”.<br /><br />To TS Eliot, he was a strangely modern Catholic intellectual, fortified by moral and theological principles but ravaged by self-doubt. To Lewis Warren, author of the classic modern biography of Henry II (Becket’s great adversary), he was a “theological dinosaur” whose resistance to his sovereign was based on little more than “narrow clericalism”.<br /><br />While the interpretations are many and conflicting, the basic facts about Becket’s life are not in doubt. Born in London in 1120, he was the son of a Norman immigrant who had become a well-to-do merchant; there was money in Becket’s background but not high social status, and his aristocratic enemies would always enjoy reminding him of his humble origins. But with education and talent he was able to rise quite rapidly, working in the household of the then Archbishop of Canterbury. This brought him to the attention of the young King Henry II, who made him his Chancellor; by the age of 34, Becket was helping to run the country.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/historybookreviews/9183214/Thomas-Becket-by-John-Guy-review.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from The Telegraph</a></b><br /><br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1400069076&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B005V2DU8Q&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Thomas Becket by John Guy: review

Few figures in medieval history are as famous as Thomas Becket, and fewer have been subject to such utterly differing interpretations. To pi...

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