Saint and Nation : Santiago, Teresa of Avila, and Plural Identities in Early Modern Spain

This project would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of many people. I owe my greatest debt to Richard L. Kagan, my mentor and advisor. While anyone who has had the privilege of working with Richard is familiar with his generous spirit and intellectual acumen, he played a particularly instrumental role in the development of this project. When I first met Richard as a graduate student, I was studying the medieval French Inquisition. I stumbled on the co-patronage controversy as a research paper topic in his seminar; in our meeting to discuss the paper, he told me that this would make an ideal dissertation topic. I reminded him that I was not an early modernist, that I didn't really know anything about Spain, and that I didn't speak a word of Spanish. He swept those concerns away with one hand gesture. And so I was off on the long adventure that has culminated in this book. I am grateful to many faculty members who provided invaluable advice and support throughout my graduate career at Johns Hopkins University, especially

In early seventeenth-century Spain, the Castilian parliament voted to elevate the newly beatified Teresa of Avila to co-patron saint of Spain alongside the traditional patron, Santiago. Saint and Nation examines Spanish devotion to the cult of saints and the controversy over national patron sainthood to provide an original account of the diverse ways in which the early modern nation was expressed and experienced by monarch and town, center and periphery. By analyzing the dynamic interplay of local and extra-local, royal authority and nation, tradition and modernity, church and state, and masculine and feminine within the co-patronage debate, Erin Rowe reconstructs the sophisticated balance of plural identities that emerged in Castile during a central period of crisis and change in the Spanish world.

Examines The Controversy In Early Seventeenth-century Spain Over The Elevation Of Saint Teresa Of Avila To Co-patron Saint Alongside The Traditional Patron, Santiago. Assesses The Crucial Role Of Sanctity In The Symbolic Representation Of The Nation In Early Modern Europe--provided By Publisher. Santiago And The Shadow Of Decline -- Saint Teresa And The Lived Experience Of The Holy -- The Politics Of Patron Sainthood -- The Gender Of Foreign Policy -- Mapping Sacred Geography -- King, Nation, And Church In The Habsburg Monarchy -- Endgame In Rome. Erin Kathleen Rowe. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "Examines the controversy in early seventeenth-century Spain over the elevation of Saint Teresa of Avila to co-patron saint alongside the traditional patron, Santiago. Assesses the crucial role of sanctity in the symbolic representation of the nation in early modern Europe"-- Provided by publisher