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The Persistence of the Sacred

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The Persistence of the Sacred: German Catholic Pilgrimage, 1832-1937

by Skye Doney

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Series: German and European Studies

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Sales Date: 2022-10-03

Hardcover

CA$85.00
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Published: October 2022

Product Details

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Series: Series: German and European Studies

Page Count: 372 Pages

Illustrations: 47 b&w illustrations, 3 b&w maps, 5 figures, 21 b&w tables

Dimensions: 6.23 x 9.28

372 Pages, 6.23 x 9.28 x 0.97 in, 47 b&w illustrations, 3 b&w maps, 5 figures, 21 b&w tables

Hardcover

CA$85.00

ISBN: 9781487543105

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For millions of Catholic believers, pilgrimage has offered possible answers to the mysteries of sickness, life, and death. The Persistence of the Sacred explores the religious worldviews of Europeans who travelled to Trier and Aachen, two cities in Western Germany, to view the sacred relics in their cathedrals.

The Persistence of the Sacred challenges the narrative of widespread secularization in Europe during the long nineteenth century and reveals that religious practices thrived well into the modern period. It shows both that men were more active in their faith than historians have realized and how clergy and pilgrims did not always agree about the meaning of relics. Drawing on private ephemeral and material sources including films, photographs, postcards, correspondence, and souvenirs, Skye Doney uncovers the enduring and diverse sacred worldview of German Catholics and argues that laity and clergy had very different perspectives on the meaning of pilgrimage.

Recovering the history of Catholic pilgrimage, The Persistence of the Sacred aims to understand the relationship between relics and religiosity, between modernity and faith, and between humanity and God.

Skye Doney is the director of the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Archive Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Select Dates in German Catholicism: 1813–1939

Introduction

1. What They Practiced: Prayer, Songs, and Processions
2. Modern Miracles
3. The Sacred Economy
4. Rending Religiosity: Johannes Ronge and the 1840s Trier Controversy
5. Clerical Crossroads: Medical Verifiability of the Sacred
6. Historical Authenticity as Presence

Conclusion: Verifying Presence

Appendix 1: Selected Pilgrim Songs in Translation, 1839–1933
Appendix 2: Daily Pilgrim Totals in 1891
Appendix 3: Daily Pilgrim Totals in 1933
Appendix 4: Holy Coat Songs in Trier Hymnal, 1846–1955
Appendix 5: Pilgrimage Dates
Appendix 6: 1933 Trier Pilgrimage Sick Pilgrim Complaints
Appendix 7: 1867 Aachen Closing Ceremony Procession

Bibliography

“An eminently readable and very fruitful study.” Jonathan Sperber, University of Missouri, Catholic Historical Review

“The work offers readers new, engaging ways of thinking about German Catholicism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and provides a glimpse into the world of everyday German Catholics and their attempts to navigate the practice of their religious faith in the modern world.” Beth Griech-Polelle, Pacific Lutheran University, German Studies Review

“Offering a tightly bounded history of Catholic pilgrimages to Trier and Aachen, Skye Doney has ably foregrounded how Catholicism in Germany, both as an institutional religion and as a mass movement of millions, sought to straddle faith and empirically-based science.” Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, Flinders University, Journal of Religious History

“An important study that broadens our understanding of Catholic faith and practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” Kevin P. Spicer C.S.C., Stonehill College, Central European History

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