Events

Saint Ursula is a princess from Roman Britannia. Her legend is based around a pilgrimage to Rome that included an entourage of 11,000 virgins. They met their end in modern-day Germany – some say at the hands of Atilla the Hun himself!

The 12th-century discovery of their remains inspired a movement among women who rejected traditional female roles to remain unmarried and live in communal groups without the influence of men. Many were accused of witchcraft.

The saint’s legend also gave birth to a monastic order of nuns, the Ursulines. Their chapter in Loudon, France, was scandalised in the 17th century by demonic possessions and a sensational witch trial.

Santa Claus is the commercial and secular face of Christmas, an ancient Christian tradition built upon even more ancient rites. The Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, was a dangerous time – a liminal one during which the forces of Darkness had another chance to take over. Co-opted by Christians to celebrate the birth of their Messiah, the winter holy days have never lost their links with pre-Christian ceremonies. The legends of figures like Saints Nicholas and Lucy merged with those of sorcerers and demons – and a talking animal or two – to give birth to modern-day traditions.  Last Christmas: The Legend of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Christmases Past is a FREE illustrated lecture hosted by Morbid Anatomy that traces the evolution of a lucrative holiday and its ringleader Santa Claus, while exploring flying cats, the demon Krampus, Coca-Cola, and the resurrection of three butchered siblings.

Join us at the Folklore Podcast’s annual Goth conference, streaming live, for a Saint Podcast talk about the history of Catholic exorcisms.

You can purchase one- or two-day tickets from the Folklore Podcast for the online event. Ticket holders will receive video links to the days they purchase, so you won’t miss anything if you can’t watch live.

During the Renaissance, what were once gruesome images of tortured saints began transforming into sensual works of art. Bulging biceps, repentant sinners, broad chests, bare bottoms, and barely legal pin-ups replaced Medieval depictions of horrific suffering and death. From the 1400s onwards, the faces and bodies of Catholic figures were often portraits of illicit lovers commissioned by wealthy bishops, bankers, kings. The works of art were erotica that passed as devotional images secreted in secluded chapels and invitation-only drawing rooms for private delectation.

Covering the legends of Saints Sebastian, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Catherine of Alexandria, and other Biblical figures from Judith to the Virgin Mary - and even Christ himself - The Agony and the Ecstasy explores the erotic in Catholic hagiography and art, and delves deeply into the sacred and carnal ecstasies elicited by ever-evolving religious legends since the Renaissance.

This Saint Podcast talk is part of a two-day conference, Saints and Mystics in Legend and Tradition, at the historic Saint Albans Cathedral in Saint Albans, just outside London. The event is hosted by our friends at The Folklore Society.

Stay tuned for more information on the date and time of this talk, and details on venue and tickets.

The button below links to a call for papers. It will be updated once ticket sales begin.

The Catholic reverence of saints is nearly 2,000 years old. Many of these figures’ stories and iconographies are rejections of traditional gender expectations with exhortations to renounce marriage, depictions that illustrate a smorgasbord of sexual desires, and allegories that confound binary gender constructs. Saint John the Evangelist ‘the beloved disciple’ was Christ’s favorite and left his wife at the altar to join Jesus as a virgin. The teenaged martyr Saint Wilgefortis is easily recognised as a crucified woman sporting a long beard. The legends of Saints Sebastian and John the Baptist lend themselves so readily to erotic depictions commissioned for the male gaze.

Join Eric Huang, creator and host of Saint Podcast, as he brings these gender-queer stories to light to celebrate the lost diversity of Christian experiences from the Roman era through the Middle Ages to today.

Hosted by our friends at Morbid Anatomy.

Saint Sebastian has been one of the most depicted saints in art. A 3rd-century Roman warrior, he was a closeted Christian who was famously shot full of arrows once he had been outed. It’s this image of a topless, trussed-up man riddled with arrows that linked the Christian figure in the Middle Ages to ancient pagan gods of disease, a protector against pandemics. And it’s this iconography that inspired artists from the 14th century onwards to transform a middle-aged Roman warrior into a barely-legal pin-up and queer icon.

Brought to you by the Folklore Society.

The most revered of saints are those who perished whilst still pure: virgin martyrs. Roman persecutions created cults of virgin martyrs which peaked in the Medieval era with the amassing of relics: the body parts of long-deceased saints. Martyrs’ legends then found a flowering of expression that sacrilegiously blurred the lines between the sacred and profane.

Join us as we investigate bejewelled bones and half-naked saints in bondage. Meet virgin martyrs like Saint Margaret who was swallowed by a dragon; Saint Sebastian the patron saint of gay men; Saint Ursula who inspired a cult of 11,000 virgins; and many, many more.

Hosted by London Month of the Dead.

The Catholic Church is a master of spectacle. Walk into any cathedral to feel how even architecture has been harnessed to proclaim the glory of God. Perhaps one of the most spectacular Catholic performances is the rite of exorcism. First developed to rid converts of the evil spirits (i.e., non-Christian gods) that inhabited them, exorcisms became standing-room-only spectacles in the 17th century, skilfully scripted and theatrically produced to bring Protestants back into the Catholic fold.

The Power of Christ Compels You! The Theatre and Spectacle of Exorcism will trace the history of Catholic exorcism with an exploration of its origins, intersections with the Infernal, and the spectacle engineered by clerics to enflame passions, and reinforce the power of the Church in Rome.

Hosted by Morbid Anatomy.

Saint Francis is the first recorded stigmatic: someone who bears the five Holy Wounds of the Crucifixion on their bodies. Stigmatics through the centuries have borne one or all of these wounds as a mark of a deeply personal relationship with Jesus.

Join us in a talk that traces the history of this mystical and painful phenomenon, one that manifests among the faithful to this day and remains a controversial marvel both within and without the Catholic Church.

A whistle-stop tour of exorcism in the Catholic Church, hosted by Grave Matters.

How human beings imagine ideas of an 'other' place or plane of existence, shaped by centuries of religious thought and often contained within the dual or triadic structure of Heaven, Hell and/or Purgatory or non-Christian alternatives, is the subject of this seminar. Ways in which the 'spiritual body' was considered to move through the afterlife or move between material and immaterial worlds, is a debate in which theology, philosophy, psychology and neuroscience continue to rub shoulders.

Join Saint Podcast creator and host, Eric Huang, in a talk about Derek Jarman’s seminal film Sebastien, how depictions of Saint Sebastian influenced the film - and how the film influenced depictions that followed it, helping to cement the saint as a gay icon.

The talk is part of Stormy Weather, an event to celebrate the exhibition and retrospective, Derek Jarman PROTEST! - on now at the Manchester Art Gallery.

Western European art overflows with erotic depictions of Catholic divinities featuring bulging biceps, full breasts, enraptured pin-ups. Many sacred figures were portraits of illicit lovers commissioned by powerful men and hidden away in invitation-only drawing rooms for the delectation of a select few.

Join us as we explore how devotional images have inspired both sacred and carnal ecstasy since the Renaissance.

Courtesy of our friends at Morbid Anatomy.