Words on fire: Gemma Galgani and the power of authorial voice

Resource added
How to Cite: Posillico, A. . (2021). Words on fire: Gemma Galgani and the power of authorial voice. Body and Religion, 4(1), 65–81. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.17839

Full description

With a focus on the archives of Gemma Galgani (1878–1903), lay Italian Catholic mystic, stigmatic, and first saint of the twentieth century, the current article highlights the ways in which Gemma cultivated relationships with the hierarchy, specifically through writing, which challenged the ‘traditional,’ clerically approved models of late nineteenth-century Catholic sanctity. With attention to Gemma’s writing, a saint who has otherwise been portrayed by her hagiographer as fitting neatly into the strictures of Italian Catholicism of her time, we see rhetoric that contests the assumption that submission is a necessary component of ‘piety.’ Attending to Gemma’s letters sent to her spiritual advisor, the current study underscores the ways in which we may understand Gemma as more than the quiet, humble, and wounded body for which she has been canonized. Gemma as author, as writing body, as I will show, weaves for herself an alternative system of agency that co-exists with – while at the same time reimagines – the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpeg
  • file size
    27 KB
  • container title
    Body and Religion
  • creator
    Ailie Posillico
  • issn
    ISSN 2057-5831 (Online)
  • issue
    4.1
  • publisher
    Equinox Publishing Ltd.
  • publisher place
    Sheffield, United Kingdom
  • doi