IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 603: Connecting to the Holy: Legitimising Power through the Cult of Saints - Norway and Poland before 1300
Tuesday 4 July 2023, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Norway Grants Project 'Symbolic Resources & Political Structures on the Periphery: Legitimisation of the Elites in Poland & Norway, c. 1000-1300' |
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| Organisers: | Steffen Hope, Centre for Medieval Literature, Syddansk Universitet, Odense Grzegorz Pac, Wydział Historyczny, Uniwersytet Warszawski |
| Moderator/Chair: | Grzegorz Pac, Wydział Historyczny, Uniwersytet Warszawski |
| Respondent: | Gábor Klaniczay, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest |
| Paper 603-a | Internal and External Mission in the Hagiographies of St Olaf and St Adalbert (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Religious Life, Social History |
| Paper 603-b | Female Advocates of Conversion: Remembering the Role of (Holy) Women in the Christianisation of Poland and Norway (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Religious Life, Social History, Women's Studies |
| Paper 603-c | A Connection with the Past through Re-Actualisation of Saints: The Liturgical Presentations of St Sunniva and St Stanislaus (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Liturgy, Religious Life |
| Abstract | In the High Middle Ages, the legitimisation of elite power was often pursued by connecting the elite with cults of saints. Used by both secular and ecclesiastical institutions, saints provided the justification of the elites' superior place in the society. This session thematises the variable ways in which the connections between elite groups and saints were utilized on the peripheries of Latin Christendom. Presented papers compare cases from Poland and Norway, two peripheral realms unconnected to each other, focusing on how remembering and venerating saints, as well as their presentation in hagiography and liturgy, might be tools for legitimising purposes. |