Storied Places
Pilgrim Shrines, Nature, and History in Early Modern France
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:11th Jun '20
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This insightful exploration of early modern French pilgrim shrines reveals their profound impact on post-Reformation Catholic life and societal beliefs as detailed in Storied Places.
In Storied Places, Virginia Reinburg explores the significance of pilgrim shrines in early modern France, highlighting their roles as centers of healing, holiness, and truth. These shrines emerged as essential components of post-Reformation Catholic life, shaped by the tumultuous events of the Reformation and the subsequent religious wars. Reinburg delves into how these shrines, rooted in natural, legendary, and historic narratives, provided a new foundation for belief and practice in a changing society.
The book is divided into two parts, with the first focusing on detailed studies of notable shrines such as Sainte-Reine, Notre-Dame du Puy, Notre-Dame de Garaison, and Notre-Dame de Betharram. Through these explorations, Reinburg illustrates how the combination of nature, antiquity, and visual representations inspired diverse motivations among pilgrims. This section reveals that the category of 'pilgrim' encompassed a wide array of beliefs and experiences, reflecting the complexity of faith during this period.
In the second part, Storied Places examines the role of shrine chaplains, who authored works that intertwined history, myth, and archival evidence to assert the authenticity of these sacred sites. Their efforts aimed to demonstrate that the truths embodied by the shrines were indisputable, further solidifying their importance in the French landscape. Through this comprehensive analysis, Reinburg sheds light on the profound impact of these pilgrim shrines on both individual and collective religious identity in early modern France.
'Virginia Reinburg provides a profoundly empathetic yet incisive reading of the ways in which communities which had suffered so much during the French religious wars managed to defend and refurbish their archives of faith. This is a masterpiece of the historian's craft: both utterly compelling and deeply moving.' Simon Ditchfield, University of York
'Virginia Reinburg's study of shrines in early modern France paints them into the landscape of healing powers, mythic origins, and local forces. Her well-documented case studies tell the story of the powerful wellsprings of belief that the Protestant Reformation had contested, but that Catholic revival successfully reinvigorated.' Mark Greengrass, University of Sheffield
'Storied Places masterfully illuminates the important role that pilgrimage shrines played in the Catholic renewal that took place in the wake of France's Wars of Religion. As Virginia Reinburg persuasively demonstrates, the apparitions and miracles reported at these shrines, marrying grace to nature, re-affirmed Catholic truths in places where the church and its truths had been most contested. Reinburg's nuanced examination of the shrines as products of both place and story makes a strikingly original contribution to our understanding of early modern religious culture.' Barbara Diefendorf, Boston University
'Storied Places is a compelling investigation of how pilgrimage shrines were remade, materially and mentally, in the wake of the French Wars of Religion. Bringing the histories of text and territory, authority and archive, into creative dialogue, Virginia Reinburg offers fresh insight into how early modern Catholicism overcame the challenges of iconoclasm, discord, and doubt. Her book persuasively recasts our understanding of the relationship between sacred landscapes and religious truth in the Counter-Reformation world.' Alexandra Walsham, University of Cambridge
'What happened to pilgrimage, that quintessential medieval activity of Catholic worship, after the advent of the Reformation and the shock of Protestant iconoclasm? Reinburg traces the renewal and growth of pilgrim shrines in early modern France, emphasizing their relations to the natural world, their ancient but sometimes mythic origins, and their powers to heal and inspire. … Those sites that survived the violence of the religious wars faced a new challenge, as writers strove to counter doubts about religious truth with assertions of these shrines' antiquity and authenticity. The 'shrine books' that resulted combined myth, history, and archives to counter iconoclasm, oblivion, and doubt. The works and their authors employed print culture to convince those shaken by religious turmoil that the Catholic Church possessed the one true faith.' L. C. Attreed, Choice
'The author helps her readers to understand the impact of the religious wars on Catholic survivors. Reinburg thoughtfully highlights the ordeal Catholic communities faced and their efforts to avoid confronting trauma in future generations by creating and recreating shrines. She convincingly asserts that the rebuilding of structures and communities was a way for Catholics to tell a story of their history that was coherent and could overlook the religious wars … What makes Reinburg's book so engaging is its multifaceted approach to telling the history of the shrines and the regions she studies.' Susan E. Dinan, H-France Review
'This is an excellent book which merits a wide readership. It displays deep scholarship, sophisticated use of a wide range of sources including site visits - which are illustrated - and it is written with clarity and gracefulness. It is a seminal essay, which makes one reflect on spirituality and landscape in new ways.' Elizabeth Tingle, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
'… an illuminating exploration of how the appeal of significant shrines was constructed and maintained, with insights as well into what the experience of visiting these places as a pilgrim might have been like.' Philip Benedict, Journal of Modern History
'Reinburg's book allows the reader to appreciate the mentality of the visitors to and promoters of early modern Catholic shrines, giving a window into the religious practices, controversies, and ideas of post-Reformation France.' Elissa Cutter, Journal of Religion in Europe
ISBN: 9781108716390
Dimensions: 230mm x 153mm x 15mm
Weight: 400g
273 pages