The virgin and the bear: Religion, society and the cold war in Italy

Journal of Social History

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2003, Pages

  Ventresca, Robert A ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO   (Canada)

^b Department of History ^*  (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0348224182     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2003.0199     Document Type: Review

References (70)

1. The message from Our Lady of Fatima to the three peasant children Lucia, Giacinta and Francesco in Portugal, 1917. The message was kept secret until 1941 when Lucia, the sole surviving of the three seers, divulged the secret in one of her four memoirs of the apparitions. See Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary: From La Salette to Medjugorje (Princeton, NJ, 1991), pp. 198-206.
2. Quoted by Angelo Ventrone, La Cittadinanza Repubblicana: Farma-Partito e Identità Nationale alle origini della Democrazia Italiana, 1943-1948 (Bologna, 1996), p. 267.
3. Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age (London, 1999), p. 12.
4. Carlo Ginzburg, "Folklore, magia e religione," in Storia d'Italia: I caratteri originali vol. 2, Ruggiero Romano and Corrado Vivanti eds. (Turin, 1989), pp. 603-76, especially pp. 672-73.
5. Carlo Ginzburg, "Clues: Roots of an Evidential Paradigm," in his Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, trans. John and Anne C. Tedeschi (Baltimore and London, 1989), p. 101.
6. Sigmund Freud, "The Moses of Michelangelo," in his Collected Papers (New York, 1959) 4: 270-71, quoted by Ginzburg, "Clues," p. 99.
7. Sigmund Freud, "The Moses of Michelangelo," in his Collected Papers (New York, 1959) 4: 270-71, quoted by Ginzburg, "Clues," p. 99.
8. Ginzburg, The Judge and the Historian: Marginal Notes on a late- Twentieth-Century Miscarriage of Justice, trans. Anthony Shugaar (London and New York, 1999), p. 15.
9. Harris, Lourdes, p. 13.
10. Mario Isnenghi, "Alle origini del 18 aprile: miti, riti, mass media," Rivista di Storia Contemporanea (April 1977), pp. 209-10.
11. See, for example, Michael P. Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary. Psychological Origins (Princeton, 1986), and his Madonnas that Maim: Popular Catholicism in Italy since the Fifteenth Century (Baltimore and London, 1992). Cf. George H. Tavard, The Thousand Faces of the Virign Mary (Collegeville, Minn., 1996), Chapter 10.
12. See, for example, Michael P. Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary. Psychological Origins (Princeton, 1986), and his Madonnas that Maim: Popular Catholicism in Italy since the Fifteenth Century (Baltimore and London, 1992). Cf. George H. Tavard, The Thousand Faces of the Virign Mary (Collegeville, Minn., 1996), Chapter 10.
13. See, for example, Michael P. Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary. Psychological Origins (Princeton, 1986), and his Madonnas that Maim: Popular Catholicism in Italy since the Fifteenth Century (Baltimore and London, 1992). Cf. George H. Tavard, The Thousand Faces of the Virign Mary (Collegeville, Minn., 1996), Chapter 10.
14. Carroll, Madonnas that Maim, p. 52, 148-149.
15. Blackbourn, Marpingen, p. 27.
16. Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary, p. 6.
17. A. Apolito, 'Dice che hanno visto la Madonna': Un caso di apparizioni in Campania (Bologna, 1990), p. 16.
18. W. Christian, "Religious Apparitions and the Cold War," p. 257. See also David Blackbourn's Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany (New York, 1993), pp. 19-27.
19. W. Christian, "Religious Apparitions and the Cold War," p. 257. See also David Blackbourn's Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany (New York, 1993), pp. 19-27.
20. Blackbourn, Marpingen, pp. 20-22.
21. As William Christian observes, there were approximately four times as many visions per year in the 1947-54 period as in all the years from 1930 to 1975. After 1954, the number of apparitions in southern Europe declined, though they maintained a regularity not apparent before the Second World War. See Christian, "Religious Apparitions and the Cold War," pp. 241-42.
22. Giuseppe De Lutiis, L'industria del Santino (Florence, 1973), pp. 37-48.
23. "La Madonna degli Angeli meta di continui pellegrinaggi," Il Messoggero, 13 February 1948.
24. Giuseppe De Lutiis, L'industria del Santino, p. 48.
25. See Il Messaggero, 13 February 1948; Gerardo Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato' ha incassato mezzo milione: si muove o non si muove la Madonna di Assisi?" L'Unità, 24 February 1948.
26. See Il Messaggero, 13 February 1948; Gerardo Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato' ha incassato mezzo milione: si muove o non si muove la Madonna di Assisi?" L'Unità, 24 February 1948.
27. Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato'."
28. Il Messaggero, 13 February 1948.
29. Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato'."
30. Vittorio Di Giacomo, "Movimento di Fede attorno alla Madonna," L'Osservatore Romano della Domenica, 25 April 1948.
31. I b i d.
32. An informal list of the 1948 apparitions with brief details is provided in Carlo Falconi's "La sete del prodigioso e le suggestioni soprannaturali." Sicily, too, witnessed what one observer called a "wind of miracles" on the eve of the election. See the writer Leonardo Sciascia's Le parrocchie di Regalpetra, pp. 94-95, quoted by Christian, "Religious Apparitions," pp. 248-49.
33. An informal list of the 1948 apparitions with brief details is provided in Carlo Falconi's "La sete del prodigioso e le suggestioni soprannaturali." Sicily, too, witnessed what one observer called a "wind of miracles" on the eve of the election. See the writer Leonardo Sciascia's Le parrocchie di Regalpetra, pp. 94-95, quoted by Christian, "Religious Apparitions," pp. 248-49.
34. An informal list of the 1948 apparitions with brief details is provided in Carlo Falconi's "La sete del prodigioso e le suggestioni soprannaturali." Sicily, too, witnessed what one observer called a "wind of miracles" on the eve of the election. See the writer Leonardo Sciascia's Le parrocchie di Regalpetra, pp. 94-95, quoted by Christian, "Religious Apparitions," pp. 248-49.
35. "Due bimbi ciechi miracolati dalla Madonna dell'Acqua a Montoboli;" "Visioni o allucinazioni?" both in L'Osservatore Romano della Domenica, 10 February 1948, and 22 February 1948.
36. Corrado Calvo, "Un'altare nella cava," Il Messaggero, 22 January 1948.
37. "'La Madonna piange" ha esclamato la folla," in La Nazione, 6 April 1948.
38. "Una Madonna apparsa in sogno rinvenuta scavando un podere," Il Messaggero, 30 March 1948.
39. "Strana apparizione di una croce ad Ancona," Il Messaggero, 2 April 1948.
40. See "La Madonna di Assisi non si è affatto apparsa;" "Passato il 18 Aprile a che servono più i miracoli?" in Avanti!, 21 July 1948, and Gli anticlericali e le 'apparizioni'," Rabarbaro, 27 June 1948; "La grotta dei miracoli chiusa dal Vicariato," Il Paese, 20 July 1948.
41. See "La Madonna di Assisi non si è affatto apparsa;" "Passato il 18 Aprile a che servono più i miracoli?" in Avanti!, 21 July 1948, and Gli anticlericali e le 'apparizioni'," Rabarbaro, 27 June 1948; "La grotta dei miracoli chiusa dal Vicariato," Il Paese, 20 July 1948.
42. See "La Madonna di Assisi non si è affatto apparsa;" "Passato il 18 Aprile a che servono più i miracoli?" in Avanti!, 21 July 1948, and Gli anticlericali e le 'apparizioni'," Rabarbaro, 27 June 1948; "La grotta dei miracoli chiusa dal Vicariato," Il Paese, 20 July 1948.
43. "Il 'pianto del parrocco' scomuniche e ricatti armi democristiane nella campagna elettorale," L'Unità, 27 April 1948. See also the Archives of the Italian Communist Party at the Gramsci Institute, Rome, hereafter APC, FDP, MF 186 (here MF 186, 0936-55). The series FDP, MF 186 contains all the material related to the Popular Front of 1948, and to the election itself.
44. For a brief overview of the Church's official approach to apparitions and miracles, with specific reference to the 1947-48 period, see A. Oddone, "Apparizioni e visioni," in La Civultà Cattolika 2 (1948): 364-75. Not everyone believed the sincerity of the Church's public disavowal of the apparitions. Consider, for instance, the skeptical perspective of the Catholic writer and eye-witness to the events, Carlo Falconi in his "La sete del prodigioso."
45. For a brief overview of the Church's official approach to apparitions and miracles, with specific reference to the 1947-48 period, see A. Oddone, "Apparizioni e visioni," in La Civultà Cattolika 2 (1948): 364-75. Not everyone believed the sincerity of the Church's public disavowal of the apparitions. Consider, for instance, the skeptical perspective of the Catholic writer and eye-witness to the events, Carlo Falconi in his "La sete del prodigioso."
46. "Troppi miracoli in giro," Rabarbaro, 20 July 1947.
47. "Gli anticlericali e le 'apparizioni'," Rabarbaro.
48. See, for instance, Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato'"; See also "Il miracolo elettorale," Rabarbaro, 14 March 1948; "La Madonna di Assisi non si è affatto mossa," L'Unità, 4 March 1948.
49. See, for instance, Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato'"; See also "Il miracolo elettorale," Rabarbaro, 14 March 1948; "La Madonna di Assisi non si è affatto mossa," L'Unità, 4 March 1948.
50. See, for instance, Guerrieri, "Il caffettiere 'miracolato'"; See also "Il miracolo elettorale," Rabarbaro, 14 March 1948; "La Madonna di Assisi non si è affatto mossa," L'Unità, 4 March 1948.
51. "Gli anticlericali e le 'apparizioni'; A. Oddone, "Criteri per discernere le vere visioni e apparizioni soprannaturali.'
52. Pelikan, Mary Through the Centuries, p. 184.
53. For a brief discussion of the official treatment of apparitions by the Church, beginning with Benedict XIV's treatise De servorum dei beatificatione, see Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary, p. 9.
54. On the post-election apparitions, see, for instance, "La Vergine appare ad una bimba di Frascati," Il Messaggero, 22 May 1948; "Una ragazza invasata salvata da S. Rita da Cascia," Il Messaggero, 26 May 1948.
55. On the post-election apparitions, see, for instance, "La Vergine appare ad una bimba di Frascati," Il Messaggero, 22 May 1948; "Una ragazza invasata salvata da S. Rita da Cascia," Il Messaggero, 26 May 1948.
56. Christian, "Religious Apparitions and the Cold War," p. 252.
57. Riccardi, Potere del Papa, p. 90.
58. Piercostante Righini, "I Comitati Civici nelle prospetrive del loro dirigenti," Cronache Sociali, 15 July 1948, p. 56.
59. Arturo Carlo Jemolo, Chiesa e Stoto in Italia: Dalla Uni Ficazione agli anni settanta (Turin, 1977), pp. 53-54.
60. Victoria De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women. Italy, 1922-1945 (Berkeley, 1992), pp. 243-244.
61. Blackbourn, Marpingen, p. 27.
62. "Miracoli," Il Garcettino di Venezia, 10 March 1948.
63. William Christian Jr., Visionaries: The Spanish Republic and the Reign of Christ (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1996), p. 40.
64. Ibid., pp. 38-39.
65. Ibid., p. 14.
66. Ibid., p. 39.
67. "Miracoli," Il Gazzettino di Venezia, 10 March 1948.
68. Blackbourn, Marpingen, p. 27.
69. Tavard, Thousand Faces of the Virgin Mary, p. 198.
70. Cf. my From Facism to Democracy: Culture and Politics in the Italian Election of 1948 (Toronto, 2003).