This book offers a new way of looking at Saint Thomas Aquinas-not as a living man, but as a posthumous source of relics. Marika Räsänen delves deep into the strange relationship between Aquinas's physical remains and the devotional moments they enabled-in many cases in situations where the actual relics were not present, but were recreated verbally, pictorially, or allegorically. Both the actual relics and these extended manifestations of them, Räsänen shows, were equally real to the medieval spectator, though the question of the material presence of Aquinas's remains became increasingly important over time amid the political tumult of southern Italy.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- The material and allegorical presence of the Saint’s remains
- The long last journey of Thomas’s dust
- The Thomas relic cults
- Readings of the corpse: textual, allegorical, and iconographic
- A note on the spelling of names
- 1. The Death of Thomas, 7 March 1274
- The memory of Thomas’s arrival at the Monastery of Fossanova
- At Thomas’s bedside
- Visions of the last breath
- The funeral
- 2. The Miraculous Body in Fossanova
- Hidden corpse, revealed sainthood
- The tomb at the centre of liturgical practices
- ‘Blessed Thomas, the saint corpse, release me from this fever’
- Divided body, fragmented sanctity
- 3. Thomas’s Land—Praesentia among the Faithful
- Becoming the Patron Saint of Priverno
- Rays of sainthood around Fossanova
- The strongholds of Thomas’s cult in Southern Italy
- The treasure in Fondi
- 4. Written Remembrance of the Remains
- A problematic possession in the hagiography
- Memorial practices of the body on Thomas’s Feast Day
- Promoting the rightful ownership of Thomas’s corpse
- Thomas’s Neapolitan memory
- The importance of the matter
- Conclusion: The Endless Story
- Appendix 1: DE SANCTO Thome de Aquino
- Transcription from the manuscript Vat. lat. 10153.
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Illustrations
- Illustration 1 Thomas’s Land map
- Illustration 2 The soul of Thomas Aquinas at the moment of his death
- Illustration 3 The Transitus of St Dominic’s soul
- Illustration 4a Thomas’s funeral
- Illustration 4b Lamenting women wearing the habits of Dominican nuns
- Illustration 5 Thomas’s green corpse at Fossanova
- Illustration 6 The placement of the tomb-shrine of Thomas Aquinas in the apse of the main church of Fossanova
- Illustration 7 One of four medallions representing Thomas’s shrine
- Illustration 8 The lunette above the door of the refectory depicting St Thomas Aquinas, the Virgin Mary and child and St Anthony the Hermit
- Illustration 9 San Tommaso Church, Roccasecca
- Illustration 10 The opening of Thomas’s liturgical feast, ms. 190 at the Archivio del Duomo, Orvieto
- Illustration 11 The altar panel depicting the Madonna and child and its commissioner, Museo del Duomo di Anagni
- Illustration 12 Thomas’s altar at the Dominican Church of Salerno
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