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Cargando... Magnificent Corpses: Searching Through Europe for St. Peter's Head, St. Claire's Heart, St. Stephen's Hand, and Other Saints' Relicspor Anneli Rufus
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. This was a short book, but it was a slog and it has several problems. The first is that none of the Saints mentioned in the title are actually in the book. Instead, the book is about the author's trek around Europe looking for relics of obscure saints that are found in obscure places. At the beginning of the book the author says that she wondered why people venerated these objects, but she never does anything or writes anything that answers that question. The book is structured in a series of vignettes about each saint and the trials and tribulations of trying to find these obscure relics and the equally obscure churches that house them. The searches themselves would be fodder for a book, but the author chooses to make snarky remarks about the churches, the relics, the saints, and the people she sees and meets along the way. In fact it is her snarky attitude about the people she meets that set my teeth on edge. I don't think a book about relics has to be totally glorified praise or filled with excessive reverence, but this kind of remark totally disrupt the flow of the book and are just plain sarcastic and mean-spirited. Relics are relics because they have some kind of religious significance and that alone requires a certain kind of respect and tolerance. This author displays none of that. A sample of her snark - At one of the last churches she visits she sees an American frat boy who is visiting. He leans up against the glass casket, lays his hand on it, and says "Hi Amigo." The author then adds. He has buttocks that are going to grow larger and larger with age. As a reader, you are thinking "What?" And then "Why would she say that?" I won't be reading another of her books and wonder why I bothered to finish reading this one. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)235.2094Religions Christian doctrinal theology Spiritual beings (Angels + Devil + Demonology + Saints) SaintsClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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I have always loved angels and saints. I am also the recipient of a few miracles thru praying novenas to a couple of saints, that science would not be able to explain. However, I am not into clergy or the Pope. It is a case of love the religion, despise who runs it.
This book was written by a woman who is not Catholic, or even Christian and her snarkiness, cynicism and general disrespect colors each page. I literally winced when she used the word ' crotch ' in the story of Maria Goretti, a little 12 year old girl who was savagely murdered, rather than allow herself to be raped. That word paired with a story of a 12 year old is cringe worthy. She made snide remarks throughout about the appearance of the saints or their stories.
I am not a fan of what was done to these bodies - I find it disgraceful. Once a person is gone, they need to have a proper and decent burial and not have their bodies hacked apart and sent all over the globe for people to venerate. So I too find it fairly bizarre and unholy to not bury someone, cut off their heads, or hands, or legs or whatever and ship them all over Europe - but that was what was thought right 200-2000 years ago, thankfully it is no longer done. Since she has no real regard for Christianity, has a hatred of missionaries, no love of saints or how they help mankind, it was inappropriate and insulting for her to have written this book at all. ( )