Project description
Remembering Italy’s mystical legacy
In the early 20th century, Italy witnessed a paradoxical fate for numerous mystics and aspiring saints: revered by the populace yet condemned by ecclesiastical authorities and largely ignored by historians. Today, their stories risk fading into obscurity, along with the devotional practices they inspired. This neglect erases a significant part of Italy’s religious past and disregards the grassroots dimensions of veneration and the roles of marginalised groups in Catholicism. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the quasi-SANTE project aims to reframe this narrative. Through rigorous research and public engagement, quasi-SANTE seeks to resurrect these controversial figures, exploring their societal impact and the dynamics of popular and contested holiness in early 20th-century Italy.
Objective
Worshipped, contested, abandoned. This downward spiral marked the fates of dozens of mystics and aspiring saints who lived in Italy in the first half of the twentieth century. Neglected today by the majority of the faithful, condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities and ignored by scholars, the memory of these figures risks falling into the haze of history and, with it, also the devotional practices and popular cults developed around them. By forgetting them, we are renouncing any understanding of a significant part of the lived religion of the recent past, as well as ignoring the heterogeneous dimension of venerations shaped ‘from below’ (vox populi) and the importance of minority and marginalised groups (such as emulators of holiness) in contemporary Catholicism. Following this path means flattening research to the dominant narrative (vox cleri) and feeding the main historiographical mainstreams based on the top-down perspective (officially approved saints and politicised cults). Against this scenario, ‘Mystical Italy. The contested side of holiness’ (quasi-SANTE) aims to go beyond the institutional and formal approach to the religion to focus on the popular and potentially contested dimension of holiness through the analysis of aspiring saints who, during their lifetime, attracted veneration and suspicion and catalysed public attention. Through quasi-SANTE, we will get innovative insights into (1) the ‘ordinary people’s’ perception of holiness; (2) the features that mystics had to embody or the skills they had to display to gain the social reputation of ‘living saints’; (3) the devotions judged problematic for the clergy; (4) and how the media, science, and authorities (religious, civil and medical) fit into these dynamics, supporting or opposing them. Quasi-SANTE will develop scientific articles, international workshops, a database on contested holiness, social and multimedia content, and an exhibition aimed at the scientific community and a wider audience.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions christianity
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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20123 MILANO
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.