Chris Nygren teaches history of art and architecture and serves as the Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Nygren joins us to discuss miracle-making images, specifically those associated with healing from plague. Dr. Nygren examines what these icons meant to people in the past and how they continue to matter to believers today. We end our discussion by talking about the images of Pope Francis giving his Urbi et Orbi in an empty St. Peter’s Square.

The images referenced in this episode can be found on our website: https://beatriceinstitute.org/miraculous-images-and-contemporary-meaning-making-images

Miraculous images

Boccaccio’s Decameron

Rituals of remembrance and the contingency of society

Making sense of survival

The intersection of Catholic devotion and public health

Icons as plague protection

Pope Francis’s Urbi et Orbi

Corporeal power in images

Contemporary meaning-making

Links:

The Decameron by Boccaccio

Boris TV series

The Historian’s Craft by Marc Bloch