The “Odor of Sanctity.” Veneration and Politics in Leonard Lessius’s Cause for Beatification (Seventeenth–Twentieth Centuries)
After his death in 1623, the Flemish Jesuit Leonard Lessius (Lenaert Leys, 1554–1623) became the object of public veneration—never approved by the Roman church—that aimed at promoting his beatification. The cult of this theologian, based on many supposed miraculous healings, increased in the sevente...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2016
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| In: |
Journal of Jesuit studies
Year: 2016, Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Pages: 238-258 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KCA Monasticism; religious orders KCD Hagiography; saints KDB Roman Catholic Church |
| Further subjects: | B
Leonard Lessius
cause for beatification
policy of sainthood
relics
miraculous healings
Robert Bellarmine
Congregation of the Index
Holy Office
theological controversies of Leuven
Flemish Jesuits
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | After his death in 1623, the Flemish Jesuit Leonard Lessius (Lenaert Leys, 1554–1623) became the object of public veneration—never approved by the Roman church—that aimed at promoting his beatification. The cult of this theologian, based on many supposed miraculous healings, increased in the seventeenth century but began to fade thereafter. The cult was revitalized in the nineteenth century, when some Flemish Jesuits began a “relic rush” in order to find Lessius’s remains, with the hope of reopening the process of beatification; the cause was, however, definitively abandoned in the twentieth century. The records relating to Lessius’s cause shed light on the policy of sainthood adopted by the new Society of Jesus and its connection with that of the old Society. |
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| ISSN: | 2214-1332 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of Jesuit studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22141332-00302004 |