NORMATIVE TEXTS: The PI (J. Ponzo) and team members analyzed the cases for sainthood designed by Catholic jurisprudence: martyrdom, heroicity of virtues, casus exceptus, and offering of life, which are the subjects of papers published in prestigious journals. The PI also edited an issue of the international journal Lexia about “The semiotics of martyrdom” and organized a panel about martyrdom at the 2019 European Academy of Religion annual conference (Bologna). Moreover, we organized seminars exploring interdisciplinary themes, e.g. the notion of personhood (which led to the publication of a SI of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law and a book, both edited by J. Ponzo and G. Vissio).
OFFICIAL HAGIOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS: We focused especially on texts listing - and therefore classifying - saints according to different criteria. G. Marino conducted important research about the Martyrologium Romanum, a fundamental but controversial liturgical text. The PI and G. Marino compared Martyrologium Romanum and Bibliotheca Sanctorum, showing how the epistemic, cultural and religious values change between the traditional form of the martyrologium and the more recent encyclopedic genre (cf. in particular the paper by J. Ponzo and G. Marino in Semiotica). The research also involved other textual genres listing and organizing saintly figures, in particular digital texts (e.g.websites and mobile apps) and litanies, which are the subject of several publications.
CAUSES FOR SAINTS AND POPULAR HAGIOGRAPHIES: We analyzed the causes for canonization and hagiographies of Saint Gerardo Majella, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. A number of publications and talks derived from this research, e.g. M. Papasidero's study about S. Gerardo's body and the modern idea of bodily pain in religious experience; F. Galofaro’s book about S. Pio and 20th-century mysticism; and the PI’s paper about S. Gianna and motherhood, which was also the subject of a talk delivered at the 14th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies in Buenos Aires. Regarding popular hagiographies, we explored a plurality of textual genres, e.g. comics, popular poetry, and digital texts. This research led to the publication of several papers and the organization of a panel entitled “Pop hagiographies: From ex-votos to Internet memes” at the AISSCA (Associazione italiana per lo studio della santità, dei culti e dell’agiografia) annual conference (2020 Rome).
NARRATIVES: We organized a seminar about “Spiritual autobiographies” (2021), which led to the publication of a book and a SI of the journal Studium, as well as an international symposium devoted to models of prayer in Italian literature, which led to the publication of a SI of the journal Italian Quarterly. In occasion of the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, we organized a symposium about the representation of sanctity in Dante and edited a SI of the journal Ocula. Attention was also paid to mystical discourse, e.g. in relation to the peculiarity of the mystical semiosis and narrative, and the biographic topoi concerning female mystics. This theme was developed in several publications and a panel entitled “A whole lifeworld into a room: semiotic issues in religious, intellectual and artistic experience” that we organized at the World Congress of Semiotics (Thessaloniki, 2022). Selected papers presented in this panel were published in a SI of the journal Annali di Studi Religiosi. M. Kubas also studied the relationship between gender and sanctity in literature.
NeMoSanctI’s team members managed a website (nemosancti.eu) a FB page and a Youtube channel. Regarding the latter, of particular relevance is the video series SemioPills, in which we interviewed prominent scholars in the field of semiotics of religion. We also took part in dissemination events such as the European Researchers' Night.
