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Magnificent Corpses: Searching Through Europe for St. Peter's Head, St. Claire's Heart, St. Stephen's Hand, and Other Saintly Relics
Holy relics -- the bodily remains of saints and other sacred figures -- were for centuries the most revered objects in the Western world, at center-stage in Europe's great churches and cathedrals. Today some relics have been shunted to side chapels and dark crypts, yet many continue to draw prayerful pilgrims, as they have for centuries, seeking solace, inspiration, and signs of miracles. In Magnificent Corpses, Anneli Rufus recounts her visits to 18 of Europe's most significant relics. With an engaging mix of history and personal narrative, Rufus tells their secret stories and, along the way, revisits with a fresh eye the compelling accounts of the saints whose physical bodies the relics represent.
245 pages, Paperback
First published June 24, 1999
4 people are currently reading
272 people want to read
About the author
Anneli Rufus
15 books59 followersAnneli Rufus is an award-winning American journalist and author.
Born in Los Angeles, California, she first went to college in Santa Barbara, then to the University of California, Berkeley. Rufus earned an English degree and became a journalist. She's written for many publications, including Salon.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe. Currently she is the literary editor for the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly newspaper. She is now married and resides in Berkeley, California. wikipedia
Born in Los Angeles, California, she first went to college in Santa Barbara, then to the University of California, Berkeley. Rufus earned an English degree and became a journalist. She's written for many publications, including Salon.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe. Currently she is the literary editor for the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly newspaper. She is now married and resides in Berkeley, California. wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 12, 2013
Don't read this expecting a glowing hagiography of the saints depicted here. Rufus is not a Catholic, and makes no attempt to be particularly reverent. But neither is she disrespectful, in my opinion. But consider the source: her lack of belief was a selling point for me, somebody interested in the subject who was happy to see a book that dispensed with breathless accounts of poorly attested to miracles.
What Rufus does deliver is a series of trimmed down biographies of the saints, and what happened to their bodies after death, and her impressions of what it's like to visit the relics today. Which means that in one section, she might be talking about the graffiti in the street outside, and in another what a bored child says in the middle of a visit. It certainly isn't to everyone's tastes, but I liked that it gave a more complete sense of her experience than simply describing the gilded angels would have done.
This is one of those books that's ideal for a coffee table. The sections are short, easily and quickly read, and it can be put down and picked up at will. I read it more or less straight through (with a few small detours) because I was hooked. Alas, there are no pictures. Anyone with enough morbid fascination to want to see what Rufus saw will either have to go to Europe themselves or try to google pictures. And let's face it, the number of people interested in this book who won't have that morbid fascination will be very small indeed. And so I am off to google.
What Rufus does deliver is a series of trimmed down biographies of the saints, and what happened to their bodies after death, and her impressions of what it's like to visit the relics today. Which means that in one section, she might be talking about the graffiti in the street outside, and in another what a bored child says in the middle of a visit. It certainly isn't to everyone's tastes, but I liked that it gave a more complete sense of her experience than simply describing the gilded angels would have done.
This is one of those books that's ideal for a coffee table. The sections are short, easily and quickly read, and it can be put down and picked up at will. I read it more or less straight through (with a few small detours) because I was hooked. Alas, there are no pictures. Anyone with enough morbid fascination to want to see what Rufus saw will either have to go to Europe themselves or try to google pictures. And let's face it, the number of people interested in this book who won't have that morbid fascination will be very small indeed. And so I am off to google.
December 18, 2024
I read, and bought, this book because I am fascinated by how many catholic Christians, and others, continue to believe in saints and relics. There have been many books examining the phenomena of saints and relics but invariably they always end with the reformation, as if the iconoclasm of the 16th century put an end to the whole business. Anyone who has read 'Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures And Spectacular Saints From The Catacombs' by Paul Koudounaris or has bothered to note the hype around the forthcoming canonization of Carlo Acutis in 2025 (see amongst many other sites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_A...) will know that saints and their relics are still very much believed in.
I had hoped that Ms. Rufus would do more than simply reproduce the type of information that can be found on sites like Atlas Obscura and try to connect with those who believe in the efficacy of praying for the intercession of saints and visiting their burial places.
Unfortunately the book is nothing more than a collection of old travel articles. There is no real 'theme' and certainly no investigation. Most of the time she simply recounts the 'official' life of the saint whose body she is visiting and has, apparently, done no further research, which accounts for many ridiculous mistakes, it was William the Silent not William of Orange who was assassinated and Charles Borromeo was the nephew of pope Pius IV not the D'Medici Pope Leo X and confusing the Cromwellian persecution of St. John Southworth with the Henricyan persecution. Also despite visiting so many catholic shrines and churches she doesn't recognise the faithful reciting the litany of Mary.
Most glaringly she doesn't even mention that St. John Nepomuk might be a fraudulent creation of counter-reformation Jesuit propagandists who simply transfered the real sufferings and martyrdom of Jan Huss to the non existent Nepomuk.
There are times when she does, briefly, mention points which might call into question the suitability of, for example, St. Francis Xavier to be celebrated as a great missionary 'converting' residents of India and Japan when what he wanted most was to punish people, by death, for not converting (on a personal note I find it inconceivable that LGBT+ will sit next to the tomb of this horrible bigot before traipsing off to the Vatican to take part in the 2025 'holy year'. Why not start from the home of another catholic bigot at Berchtesgaden?). She also, superficially, questions the message of St. Maria Goretti who is celebrated for dying rather than 'surrender' her virginity. What does that tell all those who don't die when raped? That they surrendered? That they are complicit?
Although she superficially mentions the way academics were reexamining and reinterpreting many of the stories about female saints she doesn't use any of this in a consistent way. This is possibly her most egregious failure and though her book came out a year before such important books as 'France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart: An Epic Tale for Modern Times' by Raymond Jonas it is not like his, and others, reinterpretations were unknown.
Unfortunately you would be better going to Atlas Obscura for enlightenment than this book. A real waste of time.
I had hoped that Ms. Rufus would do more than simply reproduce the type of information that can be found on sites like Atlas Obscura and try to connect with those who believe in the efficacy of praying for the intercession of saints and visiting their burial places.
Unfortunately the book is nothing more than a collection of old travel articles. There is no real 'theme' and certainly no investigation. Most of the time she simply recounts the 'official' life of the saint whose body she is visiting and has, apparently, done no further research, which accounts for many ridiculous mistakes, it was William the Silent not William of Orange who was assassinated and Charles Borromeo was the nephew of pope Pius IV not the D'Medici Pope Leo X and confusing the Cromwellian persecution of St. John Southworth with the Henricyan persecution. Also despite visiting so many catholic shrines and churches she doesn't recognise the faithful reciting the litany of Mary.
Most glaringly she doesn't even mention that St. John Nepomuk might be a fraudulent creation of counter-reformation Jesuit propagandists who simply transfered the real sufferings and martyrdom of Jan Huss to the non existent Nepomuk.
There are times when she does, briefly, mention points which might call into question the suitability of, for example, St. Francis Xavier to be celebrated as a great missionary 'converting' residents of India and Japan when what he wanted most was to punish people, by death, for not converting (on a personal note I find it inconceivable that LGBT+ will sit next to the tomb of this horrible bigot before traipsing off to the Vatican to take part in the 2025 'holy year'. Why not start from the home of another catholic bigot at Berchtesgaden?). She also, superficially, questions the message of St. Maria Goretti who is celebrated for dying rather than 'surrender' her virginity. What does that tell all those who don't die when raped? That they surrendered? That they are complicit?
Although she superficially mentions the way academics were reexamining and reinterpreting many of the stories about female saints she doesn't use any of this in a consistent way. This is possibly her most egregious failure and though her book came out a year before such important books as 'France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart: An Epic Tale for Modern Times' by Raymond Jonas it is not like his, and others, reinterpretations were unknown.
Unfortunately you would be better going to Atlas Obscura for enlightenment than this book. A real waste of time.
November 18, 2019
Prophylactically, i want to apologize to any practicing, traditional Catholics who find offense at how some of the stories of the Saints (and how their body bits or “relics” are displayed) might actually appear morbid to non-believers.
Approaching the Catholic Saints as only someone who appreciates and tells a good story, but is completely secular can do, this author combines irreverent metaphor with delightful timing for a fun romp:
“The pastel window panes are shaped and colored like handfuls of cocktail marshmallows.”
Or Catherine of Bologna - a corpse, dead since 1463 - sits erect on a throne, surrounded by trompe-l’oeil fruit, clouds, bouquets, gilt angels in an electric glow.
“The generous folds of a black and white habit all but hide bare feet dark as Hostess cupcakes.”
Rufus also has a keen eye for detail:
She notes that in St Stephen’s basilica in Budapest, Hungary:
Silenzio, prego is the only direction. Only Italians make noise in church?
Or in Rome:
“In Termini Station, ten-year-old boys drift back and forth beside public telephone. Their hands float at the level of our pockets, we who use the phones. They wait for one of us to look away. Their eyes meet mine as if to say “ I’m just doing my job.” They glide like sharks who can’t stop swimming or they’ll drown.”
The hypocrisy:
Regarding early sales of Holy Relics:
“Cynics noted the canine appearance of many of these bones.”
“Relics long hailed as those of Palermo’s St. Rosalia, credited with banishing epidemics, have been positively identified as the bones of a goat.”
Perhaps, I think, goats banish epidemics; we know cats rid witches of the plague.
Or the revered Francis Xavier in Goa, adhering to strict Christian values, and his letters to King John of Portugal: “many live according to Jewish and Mohammedan law without any fear or shame.” In another letter he asked for permission to punish idol makers with death.
“The natives of India,” he wrote “are so terribly wicked.”
Really the vast majority of these poor souls, if the stories compare vaguely with the reported reality, were either psychotic (capable of non-drug induced hallucinations of visual, tactile, and/or auditory natures - all 3 in some, particularly exciting examples) or states of altered consciousness induced by extraordinary self abuse. They’d all be diagnosed as completely whacked if alive now.
The mildest form, and perhaps the most common is the starved female. I guess the desire to either disappear, or control something in your life was around even before a tall adolescent boy’s body with two balloons in front became the feminine ideal. Now it has a name: Anorexia Nervosa, and is known to be frightening lethal. Then it got you canonized. For me, there were passages i found disturbing:
Catherine of Siena (an anorexic) dictates a convo with God:
“The soul who perfectly hopes in me and serves me with her whole heart and will must necessarily put no hope in herself or in the world.”
“To me,” God recommends, “She attributes all.”
A person can taste eternal life, God promises, when “her own will is dead. It is by that death that she realizes her union with me, and in no other way.” Denouncing “the hell of self will,” God speaks of the happy soul who has let go of and drowned her own self will, and when that will is dead there is peace and quiet.”
“The dead will,” God notes, “feels no pain.”
Two thoughts rushed around my mind as I read this:
1. It’s only a short step from Kill Your Will to “When the Church Authorities speak, the thinking has been done.” & “Obedience is the most important thing to remember.”
Both from a book to help Mormon missionaries. Both the Mormons and Catherine are saying “You, your thoughts, your individual creativity, your unique insights, are not only unwanted, they are dangerous. And God hates that part of you.”
And
2. These sound like the thoughts of someone on the brink of suicide - “The dead...feel no pain.” In fact I have heard those exact words from a suicidal patient. But again C of S was anorexic, so perhaps she was trying to evaporate?
But, it occurred to me, as some of these sweet young things came from very humble starts - perhaps this was an outlet for a young woman with thespian dreams? The one just born for Broadway? A way to train, try things out, slowing progressing, a safe way to be passionate? Method Acting?
Take Catherine de Ricci who, when not in a trance, “tended the sick, selecting the most repugnant duties and performing them all on her knees.”
Now who is that for?
Certainly she would have been a helluva lot more effective and efficient if she had been walking, no? So this is theatrical. The girl was meant for the stage! And she’s remembered 400 years later; something no actress alive will be.
But more often the clear message to girls and women was not in any way (imho) encouraging:
Take the gory story of a poor 12 year old girl who chooses to be stabbed (14 times) and die slowly from peritonitis than be raped; she is canonized as St. Maria Goretti. Her relics are displayed quite vividly, with her murderer, crouched, rape-ready, knife at hand, above her; he, carved in stone. Laying there forever with the not-too subtle message that the God-of-the-Catholic-Church wants you to die? rather than survive being raped? I’m not sure the take-home message from this oft-repeated plot is real healthy.
St. Maria Goretti has been named the patron saint of all teenage girls.
In one scene of Maria’s short life and death represented in her church, a lynch mob hunts for her attacker.
“Cute as ever, Maria lies dying in Nettuno’s hospital.”
I guess i’m thinking, help me sister, there’s more out there for “all teenage girls.”
Cute, dead-at-12 Maria is not a role model i’d pick for any girl. Gimme a big strong one who fights, kicks, screams, stabs back, thank you very much. And survives.
The author’s crisp clinical descriptions of Holy Relics as they age, or the wax fades juxtaposed against bright, fresh, plastic flowers, or as a Japanese tour group takes turns taking photos, smiling hugely, in front of a gory, bleeding Jesus are reliably insouciant.
But at some point the sad story, the yucky body part with more jewelry than Elton John, and the cleverly described street scene (generally unholy) grew repetitive. Maybe it was me. Yes it is ridiculous. But isn’t all religion ridiculous? All magic? All belief? All faith? All hope? All possibility in the face of capitalistic demise of the earth for profit?
Geez, dianne, go take a walk.
A well-healed woman rushes in and prays at the side of some saint’s relic:
“Rising, she lights two votive candles ceremoniously, then leaves without paying for them.”
Approaching the Catholic Saints as only someone who appreciates and tells a good story, but is completely secular can do, this author combines irreverent metaphor with delightful timing for a fun romp:
“The pastel window panes are shaped and colored like handfuls of cocktail marshmallows.”
Or Catherine of Bologna - a corpse, dead since 1463 - sits erect on a throne, surrounded by trompe-l’oeil fruit, clouds, bouquets, gilt angels in an electric glow.
“The generous folds of a black and white habit all but hide bare feet dark as Hostess cupcakes.”
Rufus also has a keen eye for detail:
She notes that in St Stephen’s basilica in Budapest, Hungary:
Silenzio, prego is the only direction. Only Italians make noise in church?
Or in Rome:
“In Termini Station, ten-year-old boys drift back and forth beside public telephone. Their hands float at the level of our pockets, we who use the phones. They wait for one of us to look away. Their eyes meet mine as if to say “ I’m just doing my job.” They glide like sharks who can’t stop swimming or they’ll drown.”
The hypocrisy:
Regarding early sales of Holy Relics:
“Cynics noted the canine appearance of many of these bones.”
“Relics long hailed as those of Palermo’s St. Rosalia, credited with banishing epidemics, have been positively identified as the bones of a goat.”
Perhaps, I think, goats banish epidemics; we know cats rid witches of the plague.
Or the revered Francis Xavier in Goa, adhering to strict Christian values, and his letters to King John of Portugal: “many live according to Jewish and Mohammedan law without any fear or shame.” In another letter he asked for permission to punish idol makers with death.
“The natives of India,” he wrote “are so terribly wicked.”
Really the vast majority of these poor souls, if the stories compare vaguely with the reported reality, were either psychotic (capable of non-drug induced hallucinations of visual, tactile, and/or auditory natures - all 3 in some, particularly exciting examples) or states of altered consciousness induced by extraordinary self abuse. They’d all be diagnosed as completely whacked if alive now.
The mildest form, and perhaps the most common is the starved female. I guess the desire to either disappear, or control something in your life was around even before a tall adolescent boy’s body with two balloons in front became the feminine ideal. Now it has a name: Anorexia Nervosa, and is known to be frightening lethal. Then it got you canonized. For me, there were passages i found disturbing:
Catherine of Siena (an anorexic) dictates a convo with God:
“The soul who perfectly hopes in me and serves me with her whole heart and will must necessarily put no hope in herself or in the world.”
“To me,” God recommends, “She attributes all.”
A person can taste eternal life, God promises, when “her own will is dead. It is by that death that she realizes her union with me, and in no other way.” Denouncing “the hell of self will,” God speaks of the happy soul who has let go of and drowned her own self will, and when that will is dead there is peace and quiet.”
“The dead will,” God notes, “feels no pain.”
Two thoughts rushed around my mind as I read this:
1. It’s only a short step from Kill Your Will to “When the Church Authorities speak, the thinking has been done.” & “Obedience is the most important thing to remember.”
Both from a book to help Mormon missionaries. Both the Mormons and Catherine are saying “You, your thoughts, your individual creativity, your unique insights, are not only unwanted, they are dangerous. And God hates that part of you.”
And
2. These sound like the thoughts of someone on the brink of suicide - “The dead...feel no pain.” In fact I have heard those exact words from a suicidal patient. But again C of S was anorexic, so perhaps she was trying to evaporate?
But, it occurred to me, as some of these sweet young things came from very humble starts - perhaps this was an outlet for a young woman with thespian dreams? The one just born for Broadway? A way to train, try things out, slowing progressing, a safe way to be passionate? Method Acting?
Take Catherine de Ricci who, when not in a trance, “tended the sick, selecting the most repugnant duties and performing them all on her knees.”
Now who is that for?
Certainly she would have been a helluva lot more effective and efficient if she had been walking, no? So this is theatrical. The girl was meant for the stage! And she’s remembered 400 years later; something no actress alive will be.
But more often the clear message to girls and women was not in any way (imho) encouraging:
Take the gory story of a poor 12 year old girl who chooses to be stabbed (14 times) and die slowly from peritonitis than be raped; she is canonized as St. Maria Goretti. Her relics are displayed quite vividly, with her murderer, crouched, rape-ready, knife at hand, above her; he, carved in stone. Laying there forever with the not-too subtle message that the God-of-the-Catholic-Church wants you to die? rather than survive being raped? I’m not sure the take-home message from this oft-repeated plot is real healthy.
St. Maria Goretti has been named the patron saint of all teenage girls.
In one scene of Maria’s short life and death represented in her church, a lynch mob hunts for her attacker.
“Cute as ever, Maria lies dying in Nettuno’s hospital.”
I guess i’m thinking, help me sister, there’s more out there for “all teenage girls.”
Cute, dead-at-12 Maria is not a role model i’d pick for any girl. Gimme a big strong one who fights, kicks, screams, stabs back, thank you very much. And survives.
The author’s crisp clinical descriptions of Holy Relics as they age, or the wax fades juxtaposed against bright, fresh, plastic flowers, or as a Japanese tour group takes turns taking photos, smiling hugely, in front of a gory, bleeding Jesus are reliably insouciant.
But at some point the sad story, the yucky body part with more jewelry than Elton John, and the cleverly described street scene (generally unholy) grew repetitive. Maybe it was me. Yes it is ridiculous. But isn’t all religion ridiculous? All magic? All belief? All faith? All hope? All possibility in the face of capitalistic demise of the earth for profit?
Geez, dianne, go take a walk.
A well-healed woman rushes in and prays at the side of some saint’s relic:
“Rising, she lights two votive candles ceremoniously, then leaves without paying for them.”
March 26, 2017
Informative :-)
April 26, 2011
Having read Rufus's Stuck: Why We Can't (or Won't) Move On recently, I decided to try this one ... which turned out to be a good choice.
It's part travel narrative - in the sense that the author gives an overview of the town (or immediate neighborhood) where each saint is located, as well as a description of the church/shrine/chapel itself, to give a complete picture of her experience. Entries also contain a brief biography of the saint's life. They are sometimes humorous, in the sense that Rufus mentions some of the more self-consciously pious ones were disliked by their peers as "goody goodies", etc. She does, however, successfully focus on giving historical context.
Sometimes in reviews I'll mention I'm not the target audience, but here I pretty much am - a non-Catholic interested in the appeal of relics (Rufus is Jewish, by the way), but not wanting to get mired down in a book of theology.
Recommended for fans of Theroux, Bryson, etc. for the travel aspect, and although the writing is solid, I didn't really gain insight into why it's important to actually visit, or be in proximity to, the relics themselves? Perhaps Rufus could've covered that better (in the introduction) as I came away with the same impression I had at the outset: chopping up corpses and distributing the pieces seems a gruesomely superstitious practice.
It's part travel narrative - in the sense that the author gives an overview of the town (or immediate neighborhood) where each saint is located, as well as a description of the church/shrine/chapel itself, to give a complete picture of her experience. Entries also contain a brief biography of the saint's life. They are sometimes humorous, in the sense that Rufus mentions some of the more self-consciously pious ones were disliked by their peers as "goody goodies", etc. She does, however, successfully focus on giving historical context.
Sometimes in reviews I'll mention I'm not the target audience, but here I pretty much am - a non-Catholic interested in the appeal of relics (Rufus is Jewish, by the way), but not wanting to get mired down in a book of theology.
Recommended for fans of Theroux, Bryson, etc. for the travel aspect, and although the writing is solid, I didn't really gain insight into why it's important to actually visit, or be in proximity to, the relics themselves? Perhaps Rufus could've covered that better (in the introduction) as I came away with the same impression I had at the outset: chopping up corpses and distributing the pieces seems a gruesomely superstitious practice.
May 4, 2017
You could tell it wasn't written by a Catholic and I found some of her commentary disrespectful. As a Catholic, I found myself disagreeing with her one more than a few points. The juxtaposition of the town and the church was weird and harder to believe than the miracles of the saints she writes about. Some of it was just crude and tasteless actually and found thst around the middle of the book I just would skip those parts. I did enjoy the introduction of the corpse and found I could get a deeper view on Google.
It's a fine read as an introduction if you're not interested in the religious aspect.
It's a fine read as an introduction if you're not interested in the religious aspect.
August 2, 2019
I love the idea of this book, and her descriptions are vivid, but I didn't feel the chapters were as coherent as I would have liked. She interspersed the stories of the saints with descriptions of the tourists & pilgrims who came to see them, yet the various threads of the narrative weren't quite woven together into a full tapestry. It felt more like she was hanging threads of various colors side by side and expecting the reader to pick them up and weave them together, but without the guidance of the artist's hand, the resulting picture was always just a bit blurry.
March 17, 2023
One of the weirdest books I’ve ever read but I binged it. Having seen some of these relics myself and visited many of the cities the author describes, this was a grotesque but enjoyable “vacation.”
My biggest complaint is the author’s clear anti-Christian bias. As a Protestant, I have concerns about relics. For sure. However, the author condemns martyrs as suicidal, young nuns as repressed masochists, and suggests more than once that Christians want to die. I agree that Catholicism (and, in this, Christianity) has a history of self-harm and abuse but she was more offensive than objective.
What a wild ride.
My biggest complaint is the author’s clear anti-Christian bias. As a Protestant, I have concerns about relics. For sure. However, the author condemns martyrs as suicidal, young nuns as repressed masochists, and suggests more than once that Christians want to die. I agree that Catholicism (and, in this, Christianity) has a history of self-harm and abuse but she was more offensive than objective.
What a wild ride.
June 13, 2012
I picked up this odd book because I'd recently been in Western Europe and once again witnessed firsthand the strange (to me) custom of keeping corpses in churches and decking them out in fancy clothes, jewels and elaborate glass-fronted caskets. I was hoping that this book would help me understand why people revere such otherwise grisly objects that would normally be buried in a graveyard and hidden from view.
Before we get to that, you ought to know how Ms. Rufus presents her material. In a long string of short chapters, she relates the stories of her visits to churches in search of revered bodily remains. Each chapter also contains a brief overview of the saints' life and what led them to be canonized. Alongside of all this are Ms. Rufus' impressions of what she observes and discovers.
The stories of the saints are given in a pretty straightforward fashion and often read like legends. What's unusual here is that she frames these stories with seemingly random observations about whatever she sees, hears, smells and so forth while she's visiting the various churches. You'll get a sentence about graffiti, a little kid's boredom, a snippet of frankly pornographic conversation, the odor of flowers...she seemed to just choose a thing here and there to write down to no particular end. It felt like I was viewing a realistic painting that was framed in a cut-up impressionist work.
I ended up having certain saints that appealed to me more than others. (That seems typical...most people do. I'm not a believer in all this but still I could be a fan of sorts.) My favorites were the ones who worked hard to benefit the less fortunate, and that tells you something about me. I was not favorably impressed with saints who had strange visions and behaved irrationally. I think some recognized saints had mental problems, and some of these were self-induced.
Before I finished the book, I was hoping for a concluding chapter that would sum up what Ms. Rufus learned from her observations. It was disappointing to find that there was no such chapter- the book ends when the last saint-visit does.
I can see how relics and pilgrimages arose from Jesus' time- when someone just touched the hem of his garment and was healed. Knowing more about the history of relics has taken me further away from believing in the corpses' supposed miraculous powers, though. Just an opinion here, but I think being ignorant and desperate would be necessary in order for anyone to seek aid from a dead body.
Before we get to that, you ought to know how Ms. Rufus presents her material. In a long string of short chapters, she relates the stories of her visits to churches in search of revered bodily remains. Each chapter also contains a brief overview of the saints' life and what led them to be canonized. Alongside of all this are Ms. Rufus' impressions of what she observes and discovers.
The stories of the saints are given in a pretty straightforward fashion and often read like legends. What's unusual here is that she frames these stories with seemingly random observations about whatever she sees, hears, smells and so forth while she's visiting the various churches. You'll get a sentence about graffiti, a little kid's boredom, a snippet of frankly pornographic conversation, the odor of flowers...she seemed to just choose a thing here and there to write down to no particular end. It felt like I was viewing a realistic painting that was framed in a cut-up impressionist work.
I ended up having certain saints that appealed to me more than others. (That seems typical...most people do. I'm not a believer in all this but still I could be a fan of sorts.) My favorites were the ones who worked hard to benefit the less fortunate, and that tells you something about me. I was not favorably impressed with saints who had strange visions and behaved irrationally. I think some recognized saints had mental problems, and some of these were self-induced.
Before I finished the book, I was hoping for a concluding chapter that would sum up what Ms. Rufus learned from her observations. It was disappointing to find that there was no such chapter- the book ends when the last saint-visit does.
I can see how relics and pilgrimages arose from Jesus' time- when someone just touched the hem of his garment and was healed. Knowing more about the history of relics has taken me further away from believing in the corpses' supposed miraculous powers, though. Just an opinion here, but I think being ignorant and desperate would be necessary in order for anyone to seek aid from a dead body.
April 13, 2009
Expect cynicysm as always from Anneli S. Rufus, as is her writing nature :) I have heard a lot of offended folks complain that this book is tinged with cynicysm toward the holy saints. If you're expecting praise, don't bother and hunt down other books on saints. With that said, I found this book quite fascinating. I always wondered myself, even when wandering around in various musuems and such if so called relics were just replicas or fakes, and really with some of these so called holy possessions (such as fingers, etc) how in the world can you prove really that it is not just any finger ;) But I suppose it doesn't matter really what you're praying on, maybe the idea and belief itself is enough.
I don't sense that she has insulted any of these holy relics, saints. I just think she put a questioning spin on some of the stories their sainthood is based on. I admittedly find it horrifying that the removal of a head to be sent elsewhere, with the body kept separate was sanctioned just as much as it disturbs me that one would ever be motivated to pull teeth or cut off fingers of a corpse (no matter how holy) to keep and worship be it saint or nay. Personally it seems disrespectful to defile a body so. Understandably people need something 'solid' to pray to, yet in some ways you have to wonder if people believe in not being tied to materials and such, isn't praying to a corpse clinging too much to the earthly world? Well, we humans obviously prefer to pray on something tangible.
All in all, a very interesting book, and one that assured me I could never attain sainthood as I hate suffering and love to eat.
I don't sense that she has insulted any of these holy relics, saints. I just think she put a questioning spin on some of the stories their sainthood is based on. I admittedly find it horrifying that the removal of a head to be sent elsewhere, with the body kept separate was sanctioned just as much as it disturbs me that one would ever be motivated to pull teeth or cut off fingers of a corpse (no matter how holy) to keep and worship be it saint or nay. Personally it seems disrespectful to defile a body so. Understandably people need something 'solid' to pray to, yet in some ways you have to wonder if people believe in not being tied to materials and such, isn't praying to a corpse clinging too much to the earthly world? Well, we humans obviously prefer to pray on something tangible.
All in all, a very interesting book, and one that assured me I could never attain sainthood as I hate suffering and love to eat.
February 28, 2010
This is a good bathroom book. I know, some people may find that gross or even disrespectful, given that the book is about the author's peregrinations through Europe, visiting different Catholic shrines to view the sometimes gristly relics of saints. But the book is a collection of a couple dozen short little essays, each one providing information about the Saint's life juxtaposed against the author's modern experience. Ms. Rufus is a poet, so her writing is very lyrical. But for all that, something felt lacking in this book. It felt as if the author was trying to distance herself from the grimy superstition of it all. Like she was trying to point out to us the absurdities of sainthood itself, and the cognitive dissonance between the recorded human lives of the saints vs. the mythology that rose up around them, and the silliness of the fact that people still take these mythologies seriously.
I felt like the whole subject would have benefited from a bit less cynicism and a bit more wonder ... I mean, I agree that it's ridiculous to attribute supernatural attributes to a pile of moldy bones, but isn't it also kind of amazing and wonderful that we as humans do so? That we have that capacity for completely absurd faith? I think so, anyway.
I felt like the whole subject would have benefited from a bit less cynicism and a bit more wonder ... I mean, I agree that it's ridiculous to attribute supernatural attributes to a pile of moldy bones, but isn't it also kind of amazing and wonderful that we as humans do so? That we have that capacity for completely absurd faith? I think so, anyway.
January 1, 2025
I’m not and was not raised a Catholic and I find what is done to these corpses of people the church apparently likes(!) very disturbing and fascinating in equal measure. This book is a really great idea. The execution squanders it. Having just read this, I have little clue what the intention was. It’s basically a travelogue, I guess, attempting to draw parallels between the hypocrisies of modern and past European cultures. It has a late 90s remove to it and if I’m being generous I can blame the lack of insight or attempted insight on that. There’s no attempt at understanding WHY these things are done to dead saints, instead we get a rote cataloguing interspersed with observations of the mundane decadence of Americanized European culture. Here’s this dead body, it’s in glass! Here’s a bit about their life, it’s weird, right?! No reflections, no curiosity, no depth. Why did they write this book?
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March 25, 2014Frances Mayes refers to this book in Every Day in Tuscany, which reminded me I have a copy. So I got it out and re-read it.
It's an odd little book, part travel, part biographies of European saints, told as Rufus
travels around looking at relics of their bodies preserved in various churches. As a non-
Christian, she has a skeptical viewpoint about many of the supernatural aspects of relics
and biographies both, but doesn't hammer the reader with her own psychological theories
about what to us today would seem to be very strange behavior indeed.
The book is entertaining is a dark sort of way---you don't get nearly the glowing feeling
about the back alleys of Italy, France, and other parts of Europe here that you do from
Frances's Mayes books.
It's an odd little book, part travel, part biographies of European saints, told as Rufus
travels around looking at relics of their bodies preserved in various churches. As a non-
Christian, she has a skeptical viewpoint about many of the supernatural aspects of relics
and biographies both, but doesn't hammer the reader with her own psychological theories
about what to us today would seem to be very strange behavior indeed.
The book is entertaining is a dark sort of way---you don't get nearly the glowing feeling
about the back alleys of Italy, France, and other parts of Europe here that you do from
Frances's Mayes books.
July 10, 2013
This is a quirky little book that I think is best read as a collection of travel essays with a somewhat unusual theme. I found the author's juxtaposition of the very modern world outside the various cathedral walls & the sense of stepping back in time by simply crossing a threshold rather fascinating. Her writing reminds me that truly the sacred & the profane often exist side by side. I understand why some readers were disappointed. The sense of wonder the author felt as a child has been replaced by a traveler's eye, impersonally capturing images much as a snapshot does. While photographs are interesting, by their very nature they can't help but fall flat.
September 15, 2007
My oldest friend recommended this book to me, knowing my interest in things old, historical, and bizarre. My wife loved this, too.
Rufus, a lapsed, non-practicing Jew by her own admission, travels in search of the second-tier relics of the Catholic Church, body parts and other such pieces of weirdness associated with various saints and deemed-holy folk. She explores and discusses these odd, more than slightly disturbing items of history and faith with both wry humor and delicacy, being both respectful and honestly accounting.
An unexpected and utterly different book. Refreshing.
Rufus, a lapsed, non-practicing Jew by her own admission, travels in search of the second-tier relics of the Catholic Church, body parts and other such pieces of weirdness associated with various saints and deemed-holy folk. She explores and discusses these odd, more than slightly disturbing items of history and faith with both wry humor and delicacy, being both respectful and honestly accounting.
An unexpected and utterly different book. Refreshing.
March 15, 2021
The introduction to this book was amazing. The stories that followed are great too- a mixture of present day and past; the epic stories of the saints andf the adventures of the author. I found the chapters to be repetitive in tone and perhaps just wasn't ready to read this. Also, the saints that were covered are not necessarily the one's I grew up with and was mystified by, and therefor the book captivated me a little less than I expected. Rufus makes a nice study of the prevalence, prominence and purpose of relics in general.
January 24, 2015
Intriguing book about a topic that has always fascinated me. The Jewish author is able to bring an outside perspective to the phenomenon of saints' relics and the writing almost borders on whimsical (though never disrespectful). The vignettes framing each chapter describe random little mannerisms and quirks of the tourists in towns visited. They start to sound like a travel journal and got a little distracting, but overall I applaud the author for bringing the stories of these saints and their bones to life.
January 26, 2009
We all know about them: the incredible relics of saints that are stashed away in some Church, usually Italian, and have been venerated by The Faithful for centuries, if not millenia. Rufus offers us a travelogue of some of these, making 20th century observations that suggest that more pathology than piety is involved in the veneration of these various sacred skulls and preserved, pulpy tongues. tightly written, irreverent and excellent.
June 3, 2009
This crazy fun woman (non-Catholic) was quite serious with her quest for relics. She uncovered some in some very odd places. Her descriptions of the shrines were a delight and her research was thoughtful and filled with wit. I really enjoyed the read. I only gave it 3 stars because it would appeal to a small group of readers because of the subject. Her writing, however, would grab many.
March 29, 2012
A bizarre trip through Europe with author Rufus, who, as a young Jewish girl, became enthralled with the saints and relics within the Catholic tradition. Part travelogue, part story of selected saints, it reads quickly and is informative, thought-provoking, and raised, in my mind, some question as to whether the Western Church ever truly left paganism behind.
October 24, 2012
I, too, was a child/young person fascinated by Catholic saints - many of whom were martyrs, and the wholesale display of their relics (supposedly in pristine condition), made me want to go on a similar journey to the author's and see if all the stories were true, if divine intervention would occur.
June 18, 2014
I'm a big Anneli Rufus fan. This book definitly reached my weird and wonderful history bone. I've had the fortune to have visited some of the places that Rufus wrote about and her stories added to my visit.
November 11, 2008
Very interesting tour through Europe of saint relics. As I recall, the author is Jewish so it makes for an interesting perspective.
November 27, 2008
Interesting content and language, but a somewhat repetitive format. Decent light reading.
April 29, 2010
I loved this book. It was a quick read, very interesting. I recommend it to anyone who is fascinated with the idea/concept of holy relics, the mysterious or curious. It was great fun.
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February 14, 2016Superbly written, great quick read on saints and relics. From St. Chiara's heart to St. Stephen's hands -- a quick trip through Europe visiting shrines.
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September 7, 2016Whenever claims about relics are posted while visiting museums and old European churches, I always take it w a grain of salt or two. Reading about it gives me a chuckle.
November 11, 2016
not sure why I'm so into saints lately.
April 12, 2017
Presents the relic trade in a "True Crime" style. Seedy, violent and lurid.
It's a travelogue with a side of sacred and profane smuttiness.
It's a travelogue with a side of sacred and profane smuttiness.
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