Customer Reviews

Magnificent Corpses: Searching Through Europe for St. Peter's Head, St. Claire's Heart, St. Stephen's Hand, and Other Saints' Relics

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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

As a non-Catholic who finds the Catholic church and all of its excesses fascinating, I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, Magnificent Corpses is quite a disappointment in both structure and substance. The book is a collection of barely strung together essays on the history of saints and their modern relics. The loose collection only magnifies the lack of editing in the book. I had no idea why the author always commented about an "incorrupt corpse" until the last chapter or so when she finally explained it to us all. She also repeats stories without referring back to her earlier statements. The stories themselves are also repetitive with constant cutesy references to girls in tube tops, women with shopping bags, or men in Bermudas to bring the reader back to present day. After the second time, we get the picture already! Finally, I can do without the heavy dose of late 20th Century politically correct morals laced in her commentary of the saints and the present day countries that she visited. It's enough to make a liberal, like myself, want to scream!

Having visited a few relics myself (St. Oliver Plunkett's head in Drogheda, Ireland and Blessed Brother Andre's heart in Montreal), I was quite excited to find this book. I knew that the author isn't a Catholic, so I wasn't expecting a book heavy on either background or doctrine. Instead, I was expecting a light hearted, but respectful, look at the relics and the people who worship them. What I found was a lot more background, but a lot less respect, than I expected.

It's clear Rufus has studied her Butler's Lives of the Saints very thoroughly, because she does an excellent job of giving the historical details of the saints' lives and telling how their relics ended up in the places where they are located. She even does a great job of describing the appearance of the churches and the saints' reliquaries. Where the book falls short is in its compassion for those who believe in a relic's power. Rufus uses a Joan Didion-esque style to talk about the people visiting the relics at the same time she was visiting them. In these asides, she primarily focuses on people who either clearly did not want to be visiting the relics or were visiting only as part of a tour. She also tends to show most people either not knowing where these relics are located, or so focused on day to day activity that they don't pay attention to them. By focusing on these people and situations, Rufus gives the impression that the relics are not a part of today's life, and that the people who visit them for faith reasons aren't "normal". Rufus backs up this impression by interjecting her opinions on the psychological and physiological conditions of the saints. These comments give the book a cynical tone that isn't appropriate for the topic.

Discussing relics is not an easy subject to write about. Focusing on the morbid or gruesome aspects of the relics will only get the devout angry. Focusing on the spiritual side to relics would bore the non-believer audience. Rufus attempted to find a middle road by taking a journalistic approach to the topic. Yet, she undermines the journalistic intent of her study by interjecting her commentary into each chapter. The result is a book that is an interesting introduction to the history of these relics, but one that lacks any spiritual perspective to place these items into their proper context.

I began reading this book with real relish-- like the author claims to be, I've always been fascinated with the cult of the saints. More than once I've stepped inside a gloomy church in Europe or Canada and been surprised to find the remains of a saint, displayed in a golden reliquary or laid on silken pillows, gently lighted. What do these richly dressed bones mean to the people who reverently placed them there, and those who still come to pray before them, and place their trust in them? I've even been led to ask--why do I often feel peace beside these dessicated remains, instead of revulsion, or pity, or fear?

Regrettably, I found answers to none of my questions here. These questions, or similar ones, seem never to have occurred to Rufus. Instead, she casts a cold, unquestioning eye on every shrine she enters and writes about what she sees with a predictable and trite condescension. Because there are only so many ways to lament the "superstition" of displaying human remains for veneration, Rufus dips into the lives of the saints to fill out her little book. Here, also, she is remarkably culturally tone-deaf. Yes, the lives of the saints have been re-constructed into hagiography by the Catholic church to teach lessons of purity, or forbearance, or obedience--but the faithful who come to these shrines and who feel an intimate connection with these saints cannot do so because they are examplars of virtue (what teenager goes on holiday to a church to celebrate chastity?) There is something else at work here, something very powerful and mysterious and, I think, worth knowing about. But you won't find out about it in this book. I could say that Rufus never met a saint she liked, but I don't know if she has ever met a person she liked. She didn't encounter a single person during her travels who she feels is worthy of being portrayed with empathy or understanding. In the end this book reminded me of certain 19th century accounts by Englishmen making their grand tour through Italy; like Rufus they intended to tell us what they found but because they were careful to carry their prejudices with them, and to unpack them first and to drape them over everything they saw, they ended up revealing very little about the places they visited, and far too much about themselves.

An amusing account, but why the hostility towards Catholicism? Clearly this is written by someone with little or no personal understanding of faith and spirituality. I agree that the the practice of removing relics is gruesome, but it is a part of history. In modern times, few believers actually believe that the relics themselves have magical powers. They are, however, a physical presence of someone whose faith you admire, someone with a strong connection to God. When you think about it, visiting a reliquary is not all that far removed from visiting the gravesite of a loved one. And so much hostility towards the worshipers and other tourists! -- people have stupid t-shirts, bad haircuts, and abysmal manners anywhere you go, from an amusement park to a museum to a supermarket. Descriptions of the church visitors are often an unnecessary and annoying distraction. I think that Rufus has a fascination with relics in part because she wishes she could have faith in the unknown and could have the same level of happiness and optimism as believers. Her comments on Maria Goretti also show a close-minded opinion of her veneration -- the church values life and would not insist that a woman die rather than be raped. The point is that she was died for her beliefs and the level of her commitment is what is valued (if you recall the story, it's not that she asked to be killed but rather that her assailant turned homicidal when she refused him). All this having been said, the book is highly entertaining, and I also have enjoyed her "Weird Europe" book, but I think this could have be written without the attacks (criticism is good, but this is not "constructive")

this book definitely starts out with a great idea - namely to travel to some of the great pilgrimage sites in Europe and discuss the holy relics found there. I was, at the beginning of the book, quite interested, but when the author began to use some sort of literary devices to almost poke fun the subject, I became increasingly annoyed. The first evidence of this was in a discussion of the life of St. Ursula where the author finds it necessary to paint a vision of all of the menstrual blood which must have flowed from the virgin companions of St. Ursula. It really was an unnecessary comment, which I believe was only intended to provoke. I was also annoyed at the various descriptions of the pilgrims/tourists to the various shrines. The author only seemed to comment on the tourists who were not dressed in a manner not appropriate for churches or pilgrimage sites or ones who perhaps did not show enough respect with their gestures and actions. She really seemed to feed on this and it was interesting that such a comment was made at the end of each chapter in an attempt to be anti-climactic. I don't really think her intention here was to scandalize the relics, but decry the amount of respect they are given. However, I think that she may have done this in a more balanced way by also commenting on the pious pilgrims who came to visit the shrines. In a sense, she is really insulting the towns, cities and ciizens of such where these relics are housed.

Overall, there are better reads on this subject than this book, but it is an entertaining account of a rather ancient and interesting devotion.

A very unpleasant book, the author clearly holds these relics (and the saints) of which she writes in utter contempt. Bad Paul Theroux, at best.

Although the practice of venerating relics may seem odd and somewhat bizarre to many modern Americans, this practice is nonetheless an ancient and hallowed tradition of the Catholic Church. It has been practiced not just by "serfs" as the author states, but also by many of the greatest leaders in antiquity, including Charlamagne and Constantine, not to mention countless European kings, queens and nobles. Quite frankly, it does not matter to me even slightly if the author of this book possesses the ability to comprehend or understand the practice. It is quite natural for people of different religions to misunderstand or be somewhat baffled by the practices and customs of another religion. This is the nature of religious diversity. The author of this book is Jewish, a religion for which I have tremendous respect (as I respect all religions). However, every religion contains various beliefs and practices which seem odd or bizzare to others. The practice of venerating relics by Catholics may seem as bizarre to those of the Jewish faith, as do Kosher practices which include the use of seperate sets of dishes for meat and dairy products, seem to many Catholics. Although I respect the author's desire to understand religious beliefs of others, I feel that this book assumes a subtle mocking and thinly veiled condescending tone. I feel that these subtle anti-Catholic views are guised under the pretense of a colorful travel jounal, through Europe. There is no justification to belittle the religious beliefs of others in modern American society. I kindly ask the author of this book to show more respect and dignity towards the religious beliefs of others, regardless of personal opinions or observations. The writing style used for the book is somewhat dry and tiring.

What does it say about a person that she can visit numerous sites held holy by millions of people and come away with only the basest, most obvious and often unkind observations? Anneli Rufus packed her bags for visits to many of the most famous Catholic shrines in Europe, but neglected to bring along the slightest shred of respect for others or their spiritual traditions. The result is an unsatisfying and superficial travel account-- of interest only to those who, like the author, view saints and relics with morbid curiosity alone. One searches in vain for the slightest insight as to why millions of people continue to place their faith in saints and their relics in today's world. These people crowded around Rufus at every stop; instead of trying to understand them she sneers at them and their faith.
Anyone genuinely interested in a book by a non-Catholic writer who succeeded in penetrating the mystery behind the cult of the saints is directed to Hannah Green's recently published, magnificent, 'Little Saint.' That book left me feeling calm and joyful; this one made me want to take a bath.

I read "Magnificent Corpses" while vacationing in France and Italy, and it is just the type of fascinating and quirky travel book that can take a tourist off the beaten path, and enrich his or her journey.

Because of Anneli Rufus, I was able to pay my respects to the head (and finger) of Saint Catherine, on display in the Church of San Domenico in Siena. I didn't get a chance to visit the rest of her body (in the Roman church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva), but there was a mummified pope (one of the Innocents, I believe) in a glass case in the Vatican. Rufus doesn't mention him in her book, probably because he wasn't a saint, so now I'm going to have to find out why he (of all the popes) wanted to be buried in plain sight. An offbeat book like "Magnificent Corpses" often leads to detective work on subjects (deceased popes) that I never thought would interest me.

Rufus goes into interesting detail on both the living saint (if there is any historical evidence that the saint actually existed), and on the preservation and display of the saint's remains. She scolds some of the saints and praises others, e.g. Catherine of Siena. Some may be offended by the author's clever, ironic observations especially since Rufus is not herself a Catholic. However, for me (also a non-Catholic) she turned a mummified finger and a head into the living woman who was credited with healing the schism between Rome and the Popes in Avignon.

One of my travelling companions borrowed "Magnificent Corpses" and was last seen reading it on our bus trip to Rome. She seemed as fascinated as I was, so I think I'm going to have to buy myself another copy of Rufus's interesting work.

Though I'm not a Roman Catholic, neither is the author of this book (she's a Jew) and I found it fascinating to read. Her descriptions of the lives of these "saints" and how their remains are displayed for adoration are vivid and remarkable. The one thing I wish this book had was a collection of photos. If photos of the dead are in bad taste, at least some pictures of the chapels and scenes mentioned would have been nice. Great book.