PRESENTATION: 'Saint Babilas in the West: Clues of his cult in monastic Spain', Session: Monks and Saints: The Veneration of Relics in Early Medieval Monasteries I: Pre-Carolingian and Carolingian (Michigan, May 2021) (2025)

Relics and Liturgical Practice in a Portuguese Cistercian House. The Cult of Saint Blaise in Santa Maria de Alcobaça

FERNANDES, Carla Varela and CASTINERAS GÒNZALEZ, Manuel (Edit) - Imagens e Liturgia na Idade Média. Criação, Circulação e Função das Imagens entre o Ocidente e o Oriente na Idade Média (séculos V-XV), 2021

Relying principally on a corpus of liturgical manuscripts produced in the scriptorium of the Portuguese Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça between the 13th and the 16th centuries, this article examines how and when the cult of Saint Blaise was introduced into the community, thereafter, evolving as an integral feature of the liturgical cycle, duly appearing in Calendars and Sanctorales.

Artemio M. Martínez Tejera, Monasticism in Late Antique Iberia: Its Origins and Influences, Visigothic Symposium 2 (2017), 176-194

Visigothic Symposia, 2017

In the eleventh century, Iberian monasticism became " regularized " and embraced, often by royal imposition, Benedictine monastic customs. Since its origins in the fourth and fifth centuries, the nature of monastic life in the Iberian Peninsula continually evolved and developed an identity of its own. The sixth and seventh centuries represent a key moment in that evolution, thanks to Martin of Braga, Isidore of Seville and Fructuosus of Braga, and others. According to Ildefonsus of Toledo, it was the north African monk Donatus who introduced into Iberia, in the last quarter of the sixth century, the custom of following a defined rule and who also founded the monastery at Servitanum. In this essay, I will lay out the tangible influences on the growth of Iberian monasticism of monastic movements, rules and customs from elsewhere and, from that, elicit the unique development of Iberian monastic identities and monastic environments.

-“Beyond the Tabernacle: the Real and Ideal Jerusalem in the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María de Las Huelgas” paper delivered in the International Medieval Congress (Leeds, 13-16 July 2009)

Monasticism in Late Antique Iberia: Its Origins and Influences

Visigothic Symposium 2, 2017

In the eleventh century, Iberian monasticism became “regularized” and embraced, often by royal imposition, Benedictine monastic customs. Since its origins in the fourth and fifth centuries, the nature of monastic life in the Iberian Peninsula continually evolved and developed an identity of its own. The sixth and seventh centuries represent a key moment in that evolution, thanks to Martin of Braga, Isidore of Seville and Fructuosus of Braga, and others. According to Ildefonsus of Toledo, it was the north African monk Donatus who introduced into Iberia, in the last quarter of the sixth century, the custom essay, I will lay out the tangible influences on the growth of Iberian monasticism of monastic movements, rules and customs from elsewhere and, from that, elicit the unique development of Iberian monastic identities and monastic environments

Iberian Christians and the classical past – The baptistery of Milreu/Estói (Algarve) at the end of late antiquity, in: H. Bredekamp, S. Trinks (ed.), Transformatio et continuatio: forms of change and constancy of antiquity in the Iberian peninsula 500-1500. 2017, De Gruyter, New York

Immagini di dramma e santità. La creazione della mitografia di San Thomas Becket nelle pitture dell’oratorio nella cattedrale di Anagni- V Medieval Europe in Motion: Materialities and Devotion (5th-15th centuries)” – Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória (Batalha, Portugal), 7-9 November 2019

A place for the ancestors Early medieval burial sites in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula

The study of belief, faith and religious practices can provide a deep insight into historical societies, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. They form a constant of human behaviour. Through religion, cult and rituals, multi-layered and complex cultural norms are expressed, demonstrating group affiliation. However, popular devotion and belief in a rural environment can include practices that are out with those of the official religion. Some of these practices discussed in this book can be investigated through archaeology. Important religious sites like churches, monasteries, mosques and synagogues as well as caves, holy wells and hermitages are discussed. Furthermore burials of children, revenants and the condemned are analysed, as they often deviate from normal practice and shed light on particular communities and their beliefs. Rituals concerning the protection of buildings and persons which focus on objects attributed with religious qualities are another area explored. Through archaeological research it is possible to gain an understanding of popular religion of medieval and early modern times and also to draw conclusions about religious ideas that are not written in documents. By bringing together these topics this book is of particular interest to scholars working in the field of archaeology, history and cultural anthropology. The addressed subjects were the theme of an international conference of the RURALIA association held in Clervaux, Luxemburg, in September 2015. Ruralia promotes the archaeology of medieval settlement and rural life. Current research questions in rural archaeology are discussed in an European wide context. The aim is to strengthen the exchange of knowledge in, and the development of, archaeologically comparable studies, and to make archaeological results available to other disciplines. Religion, Kulte und Rituale in der mittelalterlichen bäuerlichen Umgebung Réligion, cultes et rituels au milieu rural médiéval

Luís Fontes, The Circulation of Models in the Construction of Christian Identity in the Northwest Iberian Peninsula: Architecture and Hagiotoponymy in the Braga Region, Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 130-150

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

In this essay, I will illustrate how the presence of differing architectural models for Christian buildings in Braga, throughout the fifth to seventh centuries, suggest the existence of diverse influences and, consequently, the means by which information circulated. I will do this through an archaeological analysis of several architectural models including: the fifth-century church of Santa Marta das Cortiças (Falperra), the sixth-century basilica of São Martinho (Dume), and the seventh-century mausoleum of São Frutuoso (Real). These sites reveal influences from the Adriatic via Continental routes (e.g. Ravenna, Milan and Tours) and through the sea (via the southern Italian Peninsula and North Africa). By such analysis of the material evidence, supplemented by important recent archaeological research, I am able to propose a counter-thesis to that of the traditional historiography, namely, that: the fifth through seventh centuries were, in the Northwest Iberian Peninsula, a period of continuous constructive labor and social vitality, especially driven by the Church, in which can be detected external influences, endogenous inertia and creative autonomy. I will, moreover, discuss the apparent correlation between the ‘paths’ of such architectural models and the diffusion of the cult of relics. Through a hagiotoponymic engagement with the written sources, I examine the origins and possible evolution of patron saints in the ancient landscape of Christian Braga and ask whether one could explain the predominance of Eastern holy martyrs in the Iberian Peninsula by the direct or indirect archaeological contacts with the East?

Review of Jerónimo Sánchez Velasco, The Christianization of Western Baetica: Architecture, Power, and Religion in a Late Antique Landscape and Erica Buchberger, Shifting Ethnic Identities in Spain and Gaul, 500-700

Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, 2018

Review of: J. C. Martín Iglesias, Escritos medievales en honor del obispo Isidoro de Sevilla, Turnhout, Brepols, 2017, 359 p.

Hortus Artium Medievalium, 24, 2018