Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute of Modern Languages Research
School of Advanced Study
University of London
Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
Beyond the Bulls: The Life and Afterlives of St Francisco Solano. Unravelling the First Canonisation Process in the New World and its Unpredictable Fade into Oblivion
This thesis focuses on the canonisation process of St Francisco Solano (Montilla, 1549 – Lima, 1610), the first one proposed from the New World. The so-called ‘Apostle of America’ was one of the most emblematic members of the Franciscan family in colonial Peru. Indeed, he possessed within himself all the typical characteristics required to be promoted into the Roman Catholic Church as an authentic fruit of holiness ripened in the vineyards of the New World – a zealous missionary preacher with thaumaturgical powers.
During the first two decades after Solano’s death, his canonisation process made remarkable progress, especially because of the abundance of testimonies that attested to his miraculous mediation. Everything suggested that America would soon have its first saint. Nonetheless, his canonisation process was delayed and a series of political, political, economic, ecclesiastical, and social events would conspire so that the 'first flower of sanctity' of the New World became Rosa de Lima, a Dominican tertiary, mystic and ascetic criolla. It took 126 years before Solano was canonised; that is, more than 50 years after the canonisation of St Rosa, whose process had begun later. Therefore, through research in the diverse archives of the Vatican, Spain and Peru, one of the goals of this thesis is to explore the reasons behind this amazing 'sorpasso'.
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