Mystics, Saints, and Sinners: The Quest for Holiness in the Catholic Church

3 cr · Undergraduate

This course will explore the Roman Catholic notion of sanctity as it developed over the course of history. From martyr to mystic and ascetic to activist, variations of holiness will be examined in relation to the regions, periods, and interests that shaped them. It provides both a chronological and an interdisciplinary overview of sanctity from the New Testament to the present with a special focus on the lives of the saints, relics, shrines, and canonization treatises.