Communicating Sainthood -- Constituting Regions and Nations in East-Central Europe

The group project funded by OTKA, led by Gábor Klaniczay, represents a comparative overview of the Central European region, including specific research on cults of saints in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia. In line with the larger project we treat the cults of medieval saints and their modern appropriations as a vehicle for studying changing cultural values related to social cohesion and identity, to the interactions between centre and periphery, between the medieval Latin culture and regional interests, political and cultural agendas. For examining all this we concentrate upon the reflection of these cults in different media (texts, images, relics, devotional objects, liturgy, music).

The project is part of the collaborative research project SYMBOLS THAT BIND AND BREAK COMMUNITIES. SAINTS' CULTS AS STIMULI AND EXPRESSIONS OF LOCAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL AND UNIVERSALIST IDENTITIES, established on 1 September 2010 under the EuroCORECODE programme of the European Science Foundation. The project is funded by 4 National Research Councils of the Humanities, from Denmark, Austria, Estonia, and Norway, with a Hungarian team supported by the Hungarian Research Council as an associated partner: The project thus involves the teams from the universities and institutes of Copenhagen (Denmark), Krems (Austria), Tallinn (Estonia), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim, Norway), and the Central European University in Budapest (Hungary).

For more information, see the project website: http://cultsymbols.net/