Premium
Parading Staurothekes in Norman Sicily: Relics, Community, and the Conversion of the Other †
Author(s) -
Rodríguez Viejo Jesús
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of religious history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1467-9809
pISSN - 0022-4227
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9809.12744
Subject(s) - sicilian , piety , symbol (formal) , the arts , capital (architecture) , ancient history , kingdom , history , art , classics , visual arts , religious studies , philosophy , paleontology , linguistics , biology
This article explores the liturgical functions of cross‐shaped staurothekes, reliquaries of the True Cross, in twelfth‐century Sicily. These luxurious objects were once at the centre of the devotion of the growing Christian communities on an island undergoing dramatic social changes. This contribution examines the figuration of these crosses and the messages they conveyed to their audiences, focusing on documented processions as displays of public piety. To this end, the contents of two liturgical manuscripts from Palermo, evidence in contemporary pictorial arts and coinage, and the urban layout of the Norman capital will shed light on the reception of the symbol of the cross in the cosmopolitan, yet increasingly intolerant Sicilian kingdom.