Periodic Reporting for period 4 - NeMoSanctI (New Models of Sanctity in Italy (1960s-2010s).A Semiotic Analysis of Norms, Causes of Saints, Hagiography, and Narratives)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
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 its 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 studied 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 applied a pioneering semiotic method which allowed 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.
By carrying out this research and by proposing an innovative semiotic methodology for the analysis of models of life perfection, NeMoSanctI has had a significant impact on numerous disciplines, especially semiotics, religious and cultural studies, critical studies of hagiography and canon law, literary and Italian studies.
NeMoSanctI studied 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 applied a pioneering semiotic method which allowed 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.
By carrying out this research and by proposing an innovative semiotic methodology for the analysis of models of life perfection, NeMoSanctI has had a significant impact on numerous disciplines, especially semiotics, religious and cultural studies, critical studies of hagiography and canon law, literary and Italian studies.
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.
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.
NeMoSanctI represents the first application of the semiotic methodology to the study of both sainthood as a particular aspect of Canon law and jurisprudence, and of the acts of the causes for canonization. In particular, we studied narrative structures, thematic roles and systems of values emerging from institutional and normative texts. We also carried out a critical reflection on key concepts such as the notions of personhood, exemplarity, heroicity and martyrdom as they are developed in the humanities and in the broader culture: these concepts work as interpretative keys to gain an improved understanding of the idea of Catholic sanctity and its development over time.
Furthermore, we carried out an innovative study of modelizing epystemologies, i.e. a semiotic study of texts offering an encompassing view of sanctity by listing all the saints and supplementing their names with a short description of their lives emphasizing the grounds characterizing each of them. We consider these texts as syntagmatic chains of signs based on a paradigm formed by a set of epistemological, religious and cultural principles.
NeMoSanctI is characterized by two key features: 1) the attention to the intertextual network through which models of sanctity are built and represented by different cultural and social subjects, which entails the analysis of a corpus composed of texts of many different genres; 2) the opening of our research’s scope to genres and works which have been scarcely studied up to now (e.g. popular hagiographies and neglected literary works). Thanks to these features, NeMoSanctI allowed to look at the phenomenon of sanctity from a privileged angle characterized by an extraordinarily broad span but also by a coherent methodological perspective.
Furthermore, we carried out an innovative study of modelizing epystemologies, i.e. a semiotic study of texts offering an encompassing view of sanctity by listing all the saints and supplementing their names with a short description of their lives emphasizing the grounds characterizing each of them. We consider these texts as syntagmatic chains of signs based on a paradigm formed by a set of epistemological, religious and cultural principles.
NeMoSanctI is characterized by two key features: 1) the attention to the intertextual network through which models of sanctity are built and represented by different cultural and social subjects, which entails the analysis of a corpus composed of texts of many different genres; 2) the opening of our research’s scope to genres and works which have been scarcely studied up to now (e.g. popular hagiographies and neglected literary works). Thanks to these features, NeMoSanctI allowed to look at the phenomenon of sanctity from a privileged angle characterized by an extraordinarily broad span but also by a coherent methodological perspective.