Saints and Their Cults in the Atlantic World

A heavily illustrated discussion of pilgrimage and veneration traveling from the Old World to the New

Saints and Their Cults in the Atlantic World traces the changing significance of a dozen saints and holy sites from the fourth century to the twentieth, from Africa, Sicily, Ireland, Wales, and Iceland to Canada, Boston, Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean. Twelve scholars representing the fields of history, art history, religious studies, and communications contribute their perspectives in this interdisciplinary collection, which contains the first English-language studies of many of the saints treated in the volume.

Several chapters chart the changing images and meanings of holy people as their veneration travels from the Old World to the New; others describe sites and devotions that developed in the Americas. The ways in which a group feels connected to a holy figure by ethnicity or regionalism proves to be a critical factor in a saint's reception; many contributors discuss the tensions that develop between ecclesiastical authorities and communities of devotees.

Several articles explore the fluid boundaries between pilgrimage and tourism, ritual and knowledge; others assess the importance of place in saint veneration and shed new light on the relationship between a saint's popularity and his or her association with holy relics, healing waters, and keepsakes purchased at a pilgrimage site.

In addition to illustrated chapters on St. Benedict the Moor, medieval Irish pilgrimage art, and Ponce de Léon's Fountain of Youth, authors discuss figures such as the Holy Child of Atocha, St. Winefride of Wales, Father Patrick Power, St. Amico of Italy and Louisiana, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Prompt Succor, and the Icelandic bishop Guðmundur Arason.

The contributors are Nicholas M. Beasley, Margaret Cormack, John Corrigan, Giovanna Fiume, Tessa Garton, Patrick J. Hayes, Michael Pasquier, Rodger Payne, Juan Javier Pescador, Robert E. Scully, Ryan K. Smith, and Robert Westerfelhaus.