Gerald Parsons, Department of Religious Studies, The Open University

Department of Religious Studies

Gerald Parsons

Civil Religion in Siena
My publications in this field to date are:

'Unità nella diversità: Civil religion and the Palio of Siena', The Italianist, 17, 1997, pp.176-203.

Summary: The introduction to the article sets out the concept of civil religion - particularly as used in the study of the USA and modern Britain - and relates this specifically to modern Siena and the twice-yearly festival of the Palio. There then follow three main sections. The first provides a summary of the structure and rituals of the Palio and its importance in the life of modern and contemporary Siena. The second analyses the relationships between the Palio and 'official' religion, both at the civic level and at the personal level, emphasising, in both cases, the crucial role of the seventeen contrade into which Siena is divided. This section of the article also shows how the relationships between official religion and both the Palio and the contrade are deeply rooted in Sienese history, some of the most important contemporary rituals having their roots in the Sienese civil religion of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Finally, this section reviews the extent to which these traditions and rituals are suggestive of the characteristic features of a civil religion. The third main section of the article then examines the extent to which the rituals, traditions and values of the Palio may be said to constitute and function as the de facto civil religion of modern and contemporary Siena. The ceremonies and rituals of the Palio are discussed in terms of their annual celebration and representation of key elements in Sienese historical self-understanding. In particular, it is argued that the parades associated with the Palio may be said to constitute a civil religious 'liturgy' and that they perform a 'sacramental' role in annually re-presenting - within the 'sacred space' of the Campo - the central myth of a golden age of Sienese history when Siena was an independent city-state. This section of the article also examines the intensity of the devotion and loyalty of contrada members to their particular contrada. The intense rivalry between the contrade - focussed above all on the Palio - is discussed, but it is also argued that, in terms civil religion, the Palio, despite (or because of) its passionate rivalry, provides the basis of the profound and overarching unity which characterises Sienese society and culture. Hence the title of the article, 'Unità nella Diversità' - a description of Siena and the Sienese frequently used by the Sienese themselves.

'O Maria la tua Siena difendi: the Porta della Riconoscenza of Siena Cathedral', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 64, 2001, pp.153-176.

Summary: This article is a study of the large bronze door - the Porta della Riconoscenza - that embellishes the side entrance to Siena cathedral. Commissioned in 1944 and installed in 1946, the Porta della Riconoscenza was a votive gift donated to the cathedral, in honour of the Virgin, by Count Guido Chigi Saracini, in thanksgiving for the fact that Siena was neither destroyed nor severely damaged in June 1944, as the German army retreated and the allied armies advanced through Tuscany. The article consists of three main sections. The first section recovers the neglected history of the origins of the commissioning of the door in the crisis facing Siena between late 1943 (the surrender of the official Italian government) and mid-1944 (the liberation of Siena). Locating the commission within the context of the attempts by the Sienese civil and religious authorities to secure Siena the status of an official 'hospital city' - and therefore an 'open city' not to be fought over - this section examines the way in which the archbishop of Siena organised special devotions to the Virgin, the patron saint of Siena, for the protection and salvation of the city. The climax of this section is the formal rededication of the city to the Virgin, in the cathedral, on the evening of June 18,1944. Proposed by the civil authorities, with the enthusiastic support of the archbishop, and carried out in the presence of a large crowd of Sienese and representatives of all the contrade, the rededication was explicitly understood as a repetition of the original dedication of Siena to the Virgin in 1260, on the eve of the battle of Montaperti. The second section of the article analyses the Porta della Riconoscenza itself, paying particular attention to the four main bronze panels, each of which depicts an occasion on which the Virgin was perceived to have intervened to save or protect Siena from a mortal threat. The analysis of these panels, together with other smaller details of the door, shows how the door constitutes a sustained celebration of many of the key moments in the history of Sienese devotion to the Virgin and to a particular image of the Virgin known as the Madonna del Voto. The final section of the chapter relates the Porta della Riconoscenza to the history of Sienese civil religion, showing how the door is both a particularly striking modern example and expression of Sienese civil religion and at the same time a sustained representation and celebration of the history of that civil religion, from the late thirteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Finally, the chapter asks why the Porta della Riconoscenza should have been surprisingly neglected both in recent popular Sienese guide-books and in recent accounts of Sienese art and history, but remembered principally in books about the Palio, the contrade and their history? It is argued that this reflects, on the one hand, the sharp post-war political division in Siena between the catholic church (strongly to the right) and the civic authorities (strongly to the left), and on the other hand the fact that, in contemporary Siena, it is the Palio and the contrade that now constitute the predominant popular expression of Sienese civil religion.

Chapters 4-7 of Perspectives on Civil Religion, Ashgate, 2002.

Summary: Chapters 4 to 7 of this book, (the first three chapters of which also examine civil religion in relation to British and American rituals of memorialization and remembrance of those killed in war), present four case-studies of Sienese civil religion. Chapter 4, entitled ‘Dedicated to the Virgin: civil religion and Sienese devotion to the Madonna’, places the most recent re-dedication of Siena to the Virgin in 1944 - and the commemoration of the event in the Porta della Riconoscenza - in the context of the history of Sienese civil religion and the development of Sienese devotion to the Virgin from the late thirteenth century onwards. Chapter 5, ‘Unity and diversity: civil religion and the Palio of Siena’, presents a revised and updated version of the argument that the Palio now represents the principal modern and contemporary expression of Sienese civil religion. Chapters 6 and 7 then present focused case-studies of two particular aspects of the civil religion expressed in the rituals of the Palio. Chapter 6, ‘Images of civic devotion: Palio drappelloni and Sienese civil religion’, examines the way in which the imagery of the banners that are awarded to the winners of the Palio functions as an expression of Sienese civil religion. After briefly exploring the history and development of Palio banners from the eighteenth century onwards, the chapter examines eleven particular drappelloni from the last half century and concludes by reflecting on the ways in which these artefacts at once commemorate, celebrate and sustain Sienese civil religion, self-understanding and identity. Finally, chapter 7, ‘Sacred and profane: popular rituals in Sienese civil religion’, examines the tensions between ‘official’ and popular’ religion within the rituals of the Palio – a tension often referred to by the Sienese themselves as a conflict between the sacred and the profane. The chapter argues that, rather than describing many of the popular rituals as simply ‘profane’, it would be more appropriate to interpret them as alternative expressions of the sacred within the particular context of Sienese civil religion. The text of the book includes a number of illustrations, both in colour and black an white, of traditional Sienese images of the Virgin, of Palio drappelloni, and of rituals associated with the Palio.

Siena, Civil Religion and the Sienese, Ashgate, 2004.

Summary: In this book the themes already set out in my previous publications on this subject are treated much more fully, set in a broader historical context, and supported by more detailed and extensive references and bibliographical information.

The first half of the book examines the historical development of Sienese civil religion and its relationship to the Sienese sense of identity and self-consciousness from the thirteenth century until the early twentieth century. The first chapter analyses the development of Sienese civil religion between the Sienese victory at the battle of Montaperti in 1260 – an event which became the basis of an enduring Sienese myth concerning the special relationship between the city and the Virgin – and the final defeat and fall of the independent Sienese Republic in the mid-sixteenth century. In so doing, the chapter examines the development of a ‘pantheon’ of Sienese civic saints and the way in which both the ‘myth of Montaperti’ and the civic pantheon became increasingly elaborate and developed precisely as the city struggled with the political reality of its declining power and influence. The chapter also considers, more briefly, both the origins of the contrade, that still remain such a distinctive part of Sienese life, and the early history of the communal festivals and games that are a prominent feature of Sienese culture. The second chapter begins by exploring how the Sienese responded to the loss of their independence and examines the ways in which Sienese civil religion – and in particular Sienese devotion to the Virgin and the pantheon of Sienese civic saints - not only continued to function in the period after the fall of Siena but developed new forms and expressions both in relation to the Virgin and the civic pantheon and through the celebration of the history of Sienese civic devotion. The latter part of the chapter then focuses once again on the contrade and analyses the way in which they steadily assumed an increasingly important role in Sienese life, especially in relation to the emergence of the Palio as a defining characteristic of Sienese culture. The final chapter in the first half of the book then examines the Sienese response to Italian Unification in the mid-nineteenth century and the way in which, between 1860 and the First World War, the Sienese self-consciously re-interpreted and reasserted their traditions, history and identity, especially, but by no means only, in relation to the festival of the Palio. In so doing, this chapter also explores the way in which many traditional expressions of Sienese civic devotion were threatened by the local consequences and expressions of the conflict between church and state that characterised the decades following Italian Unification. It also argues that, whilst traditional Sienese civic devotion was thus compromised, the self-conscious cultivation of Sienese history and tradition fostered the emergence of a characteristically modern form of civil religion in Siena.

The second half of the book focuses upon the development of Sienese civil religion in the period from the end of the First World War to the present. Chapter four examines the relationship between the Sienese Catholic church and Sienese civil religion during this period. The chapter begins by examining the re-emergence of many aspects and expressions of traditional Sienese civil religion during the 1920s and 1930s, culminating in the proclamation of Catherine of Siena as patron saint of Italy and in the formal rededication of Siena to the Virgin during the Second World War. It then examines the way in which, since 1945, the drappelloni – the painted banners that are awarded to the contrade that win the Palio – have celebrated not only the Virgin and members of the Sienese pantheon of civic saints, but also aspects of, and key events in, the religious history of Siena. Finally, this chapter shows how, since the late 1960s, the contrade, the local Catholic church and the civic authorities have combined to create and sustain the development of a new expression of Sienese civic devotion and civil religion. Chapter five then focuses in detail upon the contrade of Siena and their essential role within modern and contemporary Sienese life and culture. In particular, it argues that, both in their religious rituals and practices and also in their broader culture and traditions, the contrade of Siena represent nothing less than seventeen separate expressions of highly localised civil religion, each of which is, however, situated firmly within the overarching structure of Sienese civil religion as a whole. At the heart of the civil religions of all seventeen contrade, it is argued, lies their collective passion for the festival of the Palio. The final chapter of the book then focuses directly upon the Palio of Siena and argues that, as well as being the focus of the civil religions of the seventeen contrade, this twice yearly festival also represents in itself, the principal modern and contemporary expression of Sienese civil religion. The central rituals and traditions of the Palio are examined, together with the imagery of the drappelloni of the period since 1945, to show how, by celebrating Sienese history and sustaining a distinctive Sienese identity, they thus perform many of the defining roles and functions of a modern civil religion – whilst also standing in self-conscious continuity with the civic religion that was characteristic of medieval, renaissance and early modern Siena. Again, the book includes a number of illustrations, both in colour and black an white, of traditional Sienese images of the Virgin, of Palio drappelloni, and of rituals associated with the Palio.

‘Civil Religion and the Invention of Tradition: The Festival of Saint Ansano in Siena’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 21, 2006, pp.49-67.

Summary: Every December in Siena, the civil and religious authorities celebrate the festival of Saint Ansano, an early Christian martyr who became one of the city’s first patron saints. Although based upon long-established rituals for the liturgical feast of Saint Ansano, dating to the medieval period, the contemporary celebration of this festival was ‘invented’ as recently as 1968 and represents a striking example of the ‘invention of tradition’ in a contemporary ‘civil religion’. The article examines the origins of the modern and contemporary festival of Saint Ansano, tracing its history and significance for Sienese civil religion from the late 1960s until 2003 – the year in which the 1700th anniversary of Ansano’s martyrdom was celebrated in Siena. The article concludes by reflecting on the significance of this festival both for the concept of ‘the invention of tradition’ and for the nature of ‘civil religion’ in contemporary Siena.

‘Fascism and Catholicism: A Case Study of the Sacrario dei Caduti Fascisti in the Crypt of San Domenico, Siena’, Journal of Contemporary History, 43, 2007, pp.469-484.

Summary: By means of a detailed and specific case-study, this article contributes to the history of the relationship between Catholicism and Fascism in Italy. After noting the profound ambiguity that was characteristic of relations between the Catholic church and the Fascist regime – not least because of the tendency for Fascism to present itself in religious terms, especially in relation to the memorialisation of its dead – the article takes up a recent suggestion that the cooperation between Catholicism and Fascism in Siena in the mid 1930s constituted a text-book example of the wider consensus between church and regime in Italy during this period. It does so by analysing the origins and official inauguration of the Sienese Sacrario dei Caduti Fascisti that was located in the crypt of the church of San Domenico. It argues that the latter event, in November 1938, amounted to a moment of de facto syncretism. Finally, the article reflects on the subsequent history of the crypt and the way in which the sacrario has been relegated to the margins of Sienese memory and historical recollection.

‘A Neglected Sculpture: The Monument to Catherine of Siena at Castel Sant’Angelo’, Papers of the British School at Rome, 2008, forthcoming.

Summary: Despite its impressive scale and complex iconographic scheme – which includes not only a statue but also an entire sequence of sculpted scenes, emblems and inscriptions – the monument to Saint Catherine of Siena located next to Castel Sant’Angelo has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. This article seeks to address this lacuna by presenting a detailed analysis of the monument which explores its imagery, its symbolism and both its religious and its political contexts. In so doing the article argues that the monument stands, not only chronologically, but also in an ideological sense, at a mid-point between three distinctive interpretations of Catherine of Siena and her perceived political significance in twentieth century Italy. The article also suggests an explanation for the neglect of the monument in scholarship hitherto, relating this neglect to the specific circumstances and context of the monument’s inauguration in April 1962.

‘A National Saint in a Fascist State: Catherine of Siena, c.1922-1943’, Journal of Religious History, 2008, forthcoming.

Summary: The annual festival of Saint Catherine of Siena is now the focus of a self-conscious internationalism which celebrates Catherine as both Patron Saint of Italy and Co-Patron Saint of Europe. When Catherine of Siena was proclaimed Patron Saint of Italy in 1939, however, the annual festival in her honour was quite different in ethos, being a highly patriotic, nationalistic and even militaristic celebration of Catherine’s significance in and for Fascist Italy. This article examines the campaign for Catherine to be proclaimed a ‘national saint’ and ‘patron of Italy’ during the 1920s and 1930s, locating it within the context of the relationship between Catholicism and Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy. It also examines the celebration of her annual festival between 1940 and 1943 in the context of Italian participation in the Second World War, until the fall of Mussolini and his regime.

The Cult of Saint Catherine of Siena: a case-study in civil religion, Ashgate, forthcoming, 2008.

Summary: This book analyses the way in which, over more than six centuries, the figure of Saint Catherine of Siena and the cult associated with her have been the focus for three distinct – though related – types of civil religion. It begins by examining the way in which, between the late fourteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century, Catherine and her cult became a focus for Sienese civil religion. In particular, this section of the book focuses, firstly, upon the way in which the Sienese civic authorities promoted her cult and actively sought her canonisation and secondly, on the way in that Catherine subsequently became the pre-eminent member of the Sienese ‘civic pantheon’ of saints. The central chapters of the book then focus on the cult of Catherine of Siena from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century focusing on the way that she became an official patron saint of Italy and thus a vehicle for Italian civil religion. Exploring first the relationship between Catherine’s cult and the Italian national identity in the period from 1859 to the end of the First World War, these chapters then examine the campaign, during the 1920s and 1930s, for her to be proclaimed a patron saint of Italy – analysing especially the political significance of this campaign within the context of Mussolini’s Fascist regime. The central chapter of the book then examines the early national festivals held in her honour after her proclamation as ‘Patrona d’Italia’ in June 1939, and role of her cult in relation to the Italian armed forces during the Second World War. The final part of the book examines and interprets the cult of Catherine of Siena in the period since 1945. It begins by analysing the ‘reconstruction’ of Catherine as a patron saint of post-war Italy within the context of Italian participation in the post-war European community. It then analyses the campaign – from 1980 onwards – to have Catherine officially proclaimed as a patron saint of Europe, thus adding a European dimension to the previous Italian and Sienese versions of civil religion associated with Catherine and her cult.

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