Dying in the Odor of Sanctity: Philip Neri and the Performance of Saintly Death in Catholic Reformation Rome
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Thomas J. Santa Maria
Abstract
For the four-hundredth anniversary of the canonization of Philip Neri, this paper proposes to analyze important elements of Neri’s sanctity. In particular, it focuses on what Oratorian hagiographers emphasized about his life and his holiness in their creation of his saintly reputation. I argue that death and dying was a central aspect of Philipine sanctity. In his life and ministries, modeling himself after Christian solitary ascetic monks and charitable caregiving mendicants, Philip Neri’s life revolved around death.
Acknowledgments
This article addressing the relationship between sanctity and dying by analyzing the life and hagiographies of Philip Neri is one of three papers about Neri that I have prepared in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his canonization. While much of the material draws on the same sources, namely the hagiographies and canonization proceedings, I pursue three different arguments. This paper focuses on the centrality of dying well in the Catholic Reformation. I sincerely thank the conveners of this special issue, Franco Motta and Eleonora Rai for their invitation to contribute, and to the anonymous referees for most helpful suggestions.
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- The Birth of Modern Sanctity: The 1622 Canonizations
- Introduction
- A Holy Flood of Saints: The 1622 Canonizations
- Research Articles
- The Quintuple Canonization of 1622: Between the Renewal of the Making of Saints and Claims for Pontifical Monopoly
- War Saints: The Canonization of 1622
- Framing Sainthood in 1622: Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius of Loyola, and Francis Xavier
- The Distinctive Features of Religious Festivities in the Spanish Netherlands: The Douai Celebrations for the Canonisation of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier
- Conversion and Sanctity in Print: The Episode of Ignatius of Loyola and Isaac, the Roman Jew ca. 1600
- Glorifying Francis Xavier’s (1506–1552) Good Deeds or Miracles? The Negotiation of Sanctity in Daniello Bartoli’s Asia (1653)
- Dying in the Odor of Sanctity: Philip Neri and the Performance of Saintly Death in Catholic Reformation Rome
- 1622, the Fatal Year for the Discalced Carmelites: The Canonisation of Teresa, the Crystallisation of Conventual Typologies, and the Reinvention of Iconography
- On the Canonization of the Founders of Religious Orders in Early Modern Times
- Retraction
- A Personal Union: Reformed Christology and the Question of the Communicatio Idiomatum
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- The Birth of Modern Sanctity: The 1622 Canonizations
- Introduction
- A Holy Flood of Saints: The 1622 Canonizations
- Research Articles
- The Quintuple Canonization of 1622: Between the Renewal of the Making of Saints and Claims for Pontifical Monopoly
- War Saints: The Canonization of 1622
- Framing Sainthood in 1622: Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius of Loyola, and Francis Xavier
- The Distinctive Features of Religious Festivities in the Spanish Netherlands: The Douai Celebrations for the Canonisation of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier
- Conversion and Sanctity in Print: The Episode of Ignatius of Loyola and Isaac, the Roman Jew ca. 1600
- Glorifying Francis Xavier’s (1506–1552) Good Deeds or Miracles? The Negotiation of Sanctity in Daniello Bartoli’s Asia (1653)
- Dying in the Odor of Sanctity: Philip Neri and the Performance of Saintly Death in Catholic Reformation Rome
- 1622, the Fatal Year for the Discalced Carmelites: The Canonisation of Teresa, the Crystallisation of Conventual Typologies, and the Reinvention of Iconography
- On the Canonization of the Founders of Religious Orders in Early Modern Times
- Retraction
- A Personal Union: Reformed Christology and the Question of the Communicatio Idiomatum
