Notes!! :) April 5th

Christian Tradition Notes - April 5th

Banyan tree

• grows up and down
• metaphor for Christianity

Saints/saints

• saints
• little s, refers to people who are faithful followers of Christ
• sanctus- set apart
• hagios- other, peculiar

Vernacular Xianity

• we learn vernacular/dialect through living, family, geographic region
• you can’t pick up a dialect just by visiting
• way to tell insiders and outsiders apart: who KNOWS the vernacular
• Leonard Primiano defines religion as “religion as it is lived: as human beings encounter, understand and interpret it.”
• trying to think about religion not just in the big abstract way but trying to get at it how it is actually lived and practiced
• There can be multiple vernaculars in one place
• different shrines and caste groups with own religious center
• semi similar to american neighborhoods and churches
• authorities of certain religions are vernaculars: catholic church rules, baptist church ways

- (Goa: near Tamil, Francis Xavier goes to reform Portuguese)

Tamil saints:

• dying a good death
• lack of materialism
• lack of attachment
• social roles: ex. Tali (symbol of marriage), jewelry,
• “as they were born, they need to be sent”
• associating good with bad creates sainthood
• ex. barber (low caste) divests dead of possessions/titles
• functions of saints
• intercessor: mediator
• healing
• you don’t have to go to the saint for their power to touch you
• they come to you and demand worship (in positive or negative ways)
• matted hair, other attention grabbing actions
• people show worship through pilgrimages and offerings (flower garlands etc.)
• earliest Saints were often Martyrs
• once Xianity becomes legal, teachers, healers, intercessors, etc. are Saints
• organic process: Saints are not made by the church, they are recognized
• Padre Pio 1887-1968
• has stigmata (first to have stigmata: St. Francis)
• controversial saint
• canonized 2002
• model of suffering, had a lot of illnesses
• Go to particular saints for particular issues and big Saints for big issues
• blurring of lines between saints and Saints
• household saints/deities : dead grandmother who was a really good woman etc.

Devotion of saints

• St. Lucy: rings with eyes on them, paint pictures and associate prayers
• pray to St. Lucy in Sicily, local saint, patron saint, vernacular saint