A horcrux of St. Francis?!

Dec. 8th, 2011 at 3:14 PM

puddleshark has pictures of the church where Thomas Hardy's heart is buried**, over here.

Just his heart, because his body, so she tells us, was cremated and his ashes buried, against his will, at Westminster Abby.

Is it just me, or is there something horcrux-y about divvying up a person's body and burying bits and pieces of it in different places? And if it is horcrux-y, then does it follow that saints' relics are horcruxes? Our church here in B-town has a relic of St. Francis in it .... could our church be in possession of a St. Francis horcrux?

I know I know. A person has to have divided up their soul *before* dying to make a horcrux. The whole before-dying part is key and is the whole reason for making the horcrux. But can't you imagine black magic designed to rend and imprison fragments of soul after death?

**

puddleshark also says that legend has it that a cat ate Hardy's heart before it could be buried. After which, the cat was known to look upon darkling thrushes with much more appreciative eyes.

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muuranker

Dec. 8th, 2011 08:53 pm (UTC)

I had to go and google horcrux. I need to catch up with Harry Potter ...

Anyway, according to wikipedia, a horcrux "an object used to store part of a person's soul so that in the event that the body of the user who creates the Horcrux is destroyed, the user still has a means of surviving".

Using that as a definition: scattering doesn't seem to be essential, it is just one bit that needs to be in a Secure Deposit Box. Although having a bit in the Bank of England, a bit in Geneva, a bit in Curacao, a bit in Tibet and a bit in Melbourne does seem like a good idea...

I find my attitude to my own body rather muddled. I am attracted to the idea of cremation, and scatterings in various places, but realise that I will not be there, so what I am envisioning is building memories of me associated with various places: I do not think where the bits of me are will have any effect on my ability to engage with those places after I am or dead.

I love Marina Warner's description of what the bits of saints _do_. They are, she says, like the soap used by a great-aunt. You open a drawer, and smell, and recollect in a profound way. Relicts are not part of the saint (or their soul), they are part of the memory.

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asakiyume

Dec. 8th, 2011 09:25 pm (UTC)

Hiding the horcruxes hither and yon does make it that more difficult to kill the person, yes.

That's beautiful, Marina Warner's description of how the relic evokes the saint.

One time when I was in our church's chapel, there was a sudden, intense fragrance of roses. It was so real, and so mundane in its reality, that I couldn't credit it as a miracle, and yet it was so unexplained--and so associated with miracles--that I was mightily confused. It turned out to be the rose-scented rosary beads that another person in the chapel had just taken out.

... Which I mention just because scent is such an intense conveyer of memories and experience.

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fpb

Dec. 8th, 2011 09:52 pm (UTC)

Before Marina Warner, Cardinal Newman had said something pretty much along the same lines. But it is also accepted that the places where a holy person has lived are somehow made closer to holiness by the lingering effect of his/her presence. To reflect on St.Therese of Lisieux at home is not the same as to go to her church in Lisieux (if, of course, you are familiar with St.Therese in the first place). Of course, the maximum instance of this is the permanent relationship of the Holy Land and the city of Jerusalem with the life and death of Jesus.

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asakiyume

Dec. 8th, 2011 09:54 pm (UTC)

I am familiar with St. Therese--she was the patron saint of the nursery school my older daughter went to, and at that time I read up on her.

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yamamanama

Dec. 8th, 2011 10:05 pm (UTC)

Is Therese the same as Theresa, the one who lends her name to a Baroque sculpture and a Czech band?

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asakiyume

Dec. 8th, 2011 10:22 pm (UTC)

No, that's a different one. This one is actually Thérèse. She's known as the Little Flower. The one who's the baroque sculpture is Teresa of Avila.

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fpb

Dec. 8th, 2011 11:35 pm (UTC)

They are both among the greatest saints in the Catholic Church, and both Doctors of the Church (that is, writers whose work is both classic and central), but they could not possibly have been more different as women. Therese of the Child Jesus died young and lived a quiet little life in a provincial monastery. Teresa of Avila was a mighty reformer, a public personality and a powerful figure in the Church. The variety of Saints in general is amazing.

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muuranker

Dec. 15th, 2011 10:27 pm (UTC)

I am afraid I was only recollecting MW, and she may well have cited her sources ...

I should read more Newman!

I am wondering ... do you think there is a difference between the difference in quality of reflecting on the works of (say) a creative person in a place that they worked/inspired them and doing that at home (with texts, or in a gallery with art, or in a theatre with drama, etc.), and the association of place with a spiritual person?

Personally, I do find that there is a difference in the at home / place of creation reflection, but don't know about the religious difference.

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fpb

Dec. 15th, 2011 11:04 pm (UTC)

I do think it makes a difference, though it can't be easily defined.

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A horcrux of St. Francis?!

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