Images played a seminal role in constructing the new Counter-Reformation notions of sanctity, and the increasing regulation of sacred art, and of saints’ images in particular, impacted the development of the visual culture of sanctity in a distinct way. This chapter demonstrates that even as artists had to negotiate changing sets of religious and artistic norms in order to create visual proposals for sacred subjects that would also conform to new Tridentine regulations, they also created alternative visual forms for representing aspiring sanctity.

This chapter uses Black confraternities as a case study to show the vital role of such organizations in organizing mutual aid, fostering saintly devotions, and maintaining communal bonds. Confraternities built churches, commissioned art, and took part in public festivals; such activities by Black confraternities also enabled Afrodescendants to navigate social hierarchies and visibly assert their presence in the Catholic world.

The literature generated by the cult of the saints extended well beyond their written lives to encompass plays, poetry, and prose. This chapter explores the vital role played by vernacular print and manuscripts in sustaining English Catholics and their exile communities overseas as one of the many ways literary works on saints could help to construct, foster, and defend early modern Catholic identities.

Liturgy was central to the cult of the saints, regulating how, when, where, and with what honors they were worshipped. This chapter examines how Roman attempts to censor and standardize the liturgy after the Council of Trent came up against local, regional, and national efforts to preserve the distinctiveness of their particular devotions.

Sanctity intersected with medicine during the early modern period because the remains of aspiring saints could offer evidence of divine favor. By studying examples of extreme asceticism, bodily incorruption, and other anatomical wonders, this chapter reveals how medical expertise became a crucial part of Catholic canonization efforts.

While few martyrs made it to sainthood during the early modern period, the idea of martyrdom was nevertheless revitalized and reshaped following the Reformation and New World discoveries. This chapter analyzes how martyrdom functioned across different geographical and religious frontiers – heresy, infidelity, and paganism – whose importance shifted over time in line with Catholic imperial expansion.

This chapter traces the development of Black sanctity in early modern Catholicism, examining how Black saints were venerated within the context of European Christianity, transatlantic slavery, and African diasporic communities. By focusing on both ancient and contemporary holy Black figures, the chapter explores the rich and multifaced roles played by Black saints in both European missionary efforts and Afro-diasporic religious practices.

This chapter examines bishops both as saint-makers and as saints in their own right from the end of the Council of Trent through the eighteenth century. Bishops promoted the cult of existing saints in their communities, worked as arbiters in formal canonization procedures to create new saints, and sometimes became saints themselves through their efforts to live like the model bishop saints they admired.

Using the Iberian Peninsula as a case study, this chapter examines the evolution of female sanctity away from the late medieval visionary model pioneered by Catherine of Siena toward a new paradigm of enclosed, contemplative mysticism exemplified by Teresa of Ávila. Analysis of the post-Tridentine lives and hagiographies of late medieval and early sixteenth-century visionary Castilian women reveals the existence and surprising vitality of an “intermediate” model, which shows that Teresa’s triumph was by no means inevitable.

Hagiography played a seminal role within early modern Catholicism, with the writing and dissemination of the lives of saints – ancient, medieval, and contemporary – essential to countering Protestant attacks and reinforcing Catholic identities. This chapter investigates how printed lives, epics, and dramatic performances contributed to a multisensory experience of sanctity that connected local religious communities with the broader aims of early modern Roman Catholic Reform.

Canonization proceedings underwent dramatic changes during the early modern period in response to scathing external criticism and a growing internal demand for new saints. This chapter explores how these stringent new rules shored up papal authority and redefined Catholic practices of veneration, by complicating the path to sainthood for centuries to come.

Devotional objects, such as rosaries, medals, and relics, have always stood at the heart of the Catholic veneration of saints. Using two Bavarian rosaries as a case study, this chapter examines how such material objects allowed individual believers to tailor their faith in tactile ways, linking their devotions to wider trends within global Catholicism.

Following the 1578 rediscovery of Roman catacombs, thousands of relics of alleged early martyrs were transported to Catholic communities across the globe. Using Bavaria as a case study, this chapter investigates how these often fragmentary remains were transformed into catacomb saints, complete with names and identities, who served as patrons and protectors for localities far from Rome.

As with other aspects of the cult of the saints, relics faced increasing official scrutiny during the early modern period. Drawing on legal cases and a new and burgeoning genre of relic manuals, this chapter examines the evolving but ultimately vexed methods of identifying and authenticating relics in response to Protestant attacks and Catholic reform.