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- Title
FROM A HIDING PLACE TO THE ETERNAL GLORY THOMAS AQUINAS'S SAINTLY PRESENCE IN DOMINICAN LITURGY.
- Authors
RÄSÄNEN, MARIKA; HEIKKINEN, SEPPO; VUORI HELSINKI, HILKKA-LIISA
- Abstract
This paper focuses on one of the main features of the saint's liturgy: making his or her presence real and vivid during the services of the Office. The presence of the saint was a notion that was central in elaborating the relationship between the saint, especially when he or she was a newcomer, and his or her folk. The presence should also be something that the saint him- or herself wanted. In Thomas' translation Office, which is at the centre of our analyses, the presence of the saint can be sensed by ears, eyes, nose, mouth and touch, and through such feelings as darkness and deepness, doubts, and joy. In this paper, we argue that the liturgical melodies and texts were in the core of experiencing the presence of a saint. The approach of cults of saints through analysis of modal and metrical structure of the Office as well as the overall composition of liturgical feast is still a novelty. The mode of a chant is the key to interpreting the sensual or emotional meaning the melodies and the texts conveyed to the medieval audience in the Dominican church spaces. The metrical structure must be seen as a meaningful component of the poetry of the liturgy. In a larger contemporary context of Thomas' translation, we will see the power of emotionally loaded liturgy in transmitting political as well as religious ideologies. Altogether, the study demonstrates the necessity of analysing the cults of saints using liturgical sources, and the fruitfulness of multidisciplinary analyses of liturgy, especially when trying to recapture the emotions and experiences of medieval lay people.
- Subjects
THOMAS, Aquinas, Saint, ca. 1225-1274; LITURGICS; EMOTIONS; CISTERCIAN monasteries; FRIARS; HISTORY
- Publication
Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae, 2017, Vol 22, p53
- ISSN
1427-4418
- Publication type
Article