For fear of the multitudes: disruptive pilgrims and appropriate audiences for Cistercian relics in the twelfth century

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Fitzgibbon, Georgina (2020). For fear of the multitudes: disruptive pilgrims and appropriate audiences for Cistercian relics in the twelfth century. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis argues that the Cistercians created a distinctive aesthetic relating to relics in the twelfth century by seeking to restrict the disruptive presence of pilgrims who might introduce an unwelcome element of worldliness and distraction into the cloister. Relics functioned as pegs for corporate memory in internally-focused story-telling, such as exempla collections, but less as attractions for pilgrimage. Compared to contemporary cults managed by other monastic orders, the Cistercian cults limited the dispersal of contact relics and emphasised the role of Cistercian miracle recipients and visionaries in texts. This Cistercian aesthetic had social consequences. Eschewing the promotion of lay pilgrimage to their monasteries, the Order used its aura of exclusivity to attract powerful patrons, and managed their access through limited ad sanctos burials. The importance of audience in the presentation of Cistercian relics and miracles will be demonstrated through a range of sources; hagiography, exempla collections, letter collections, and statutes. It will be shown that the presentation of the miraculous represents an underutilised source for the conceptualisation of Cistercian identity and spirituality in the twelfth century.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):