Writing Passion Relic Agency in Pilgrim Tales of Christian-Muslim Contexts
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Description
CMS is thrilled to welcome Siobhain Bly Calkin of Carleton University to present, Writing Passion Relic Agency in Pilgrim Tales of Christian-Muslim Contexts at the March 6 Convivium.
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Abstract
Because they are originally everyday metal or plant matter, Passion relics pose an interesting representational challenge for Christian writers: How does one depict these relics as possessing exceptional power, particularly in multi-religious environments? Moreover, how can such relics manifest power when in Muslim possession and accessible to Christians only under conditions of surveillance and control? This paper considers the strategies used to address this challenge and situation of devotional dispossession in two late medieval tales of European pilgrimage to Jerusalem, James of Verona’s Liber Peregrinacionis and “A Grete Myracle of Syr Roger Wallysborow.” Drawing on new materialist theories of thingly agency, I argue that these medieval texts embrace the everyday, inert materiality of Passion relics as the path through which to depict them acting exceptionally to reshape human bodies, transform natural and built environments, and challenge geopolitical power, particularly Muslim control over lands, objects, and Christian pilgrims.
Biography
Dr. Siobhain Bly Calkin is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where she also coordinates the Minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She is the author of Saracens and the Making of English Identity: The Auchinleck Manuscript, the lead author of the open access digital resource Relic Tales: A Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval Narratives Recounting the Circulation of Christian Passion Relics in Mixed Muslim-Christian Contexts, and the co-editor with Matthew Aiello of a 2025 special issue of Exemplaria entitled “Retracing Trauma’s Theories in Premodern Literatures.” She has been the recipient of two multi-year research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and has published numerous articles on crusading texts, trauma, manuscripts, and medieval romances. She is currently serving as the Past President of the Canadian Society of Medievalists / Société canadienne des médiévistes. In 2025-26, Carleton University awarded her the Marston LaFrance Fellowship to complete her current book project, Narratives of Impassioned Things: Writing Passion Relic Agency in Holy Land Tales of Crusade and Pilgrimage.