This three-year project explores interaction with saints as a dynamic social process that both requires and creates active participation, emotions, and experiences. The project is funded by Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland (The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland).
Our starting points
The Lived Religion in Medieval Finland -project starts with the premise of religion as a dynamic social process that both requires and creates active participation, emotions, and experiences. Religion is seen as a way to interact and participate (with)in a community – as a performative space. It is an integral building block of (collective) identity. Saints’ cults and interaction with saints were a hallmark of medieval European culture – they were both local and translocal.
The project focuses on Finland’s most important medieval cults and interactions with the Virgin Mary, Saint Anne, Saint Henry, and Saint Birgitta. The aim is to shed light on the general European and local cultural features of the medieval lived religion. This project provides a new overview of a theme that has so far received less attention from scholars since preserved source material from Finland is fragmentary. The sources used by the project include liturgical manuscripts, sermons, and wills, as well as various artifacts associated with the saints.
Funded by
Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland
