Catholics in America

Catalog description

This course uses canonization, the process by which the Catholic Church recognizes saints, to explore change over time in the history of both the Catholic Church and the United States. Drawing upon a cast of characters that includes saints and sinners, martyrs and missionaries, patriot priests and unruly women, we will explore how conceptions of sanctity and holiness have been shaped by popular devotion, papal power, gender, race, sexuality, nationalism, and commercialization.