Congratulations to Dr. Bonnie Effros on winning a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2023-2025) for her project “Preserved in Wax: Catacomb Martyrs, Piety, and Ultramontane Politics in Post-Revolutionary France.” Read on to learn more about her project below.
Project Description
Scholars of wax sculpture in Europe have marveled at the accuracy of early modern anatomical modeling and measured the popularity of nineteenth-century displays of wax figures such as those of Madame Tussaud. This project sheds light on another type of wax sculpture, that of holy wax effigies embedded with Christian martyrial remains from the Roman catacombs that circulated among Catholics in the nineteenth century. In the period after the French Revolution, these human relics were transformed into youthful looking figures by anonymous artists using wax, human hair, and fine clothing. The lifelike wax effigies not only played an essential role in papal diplomacy, but also made saints’ bones more conducive to contemplative devotion. This project thus focuses on mid-nineteenth century Catholic activists, especially ultramontane clerics loyal to Rome, who sought to “recharge” secularized religious spaces using martyrial remains, and why clerical confidence in these ephemeral figures faded quickly.
“With the benefit of archival materials available in France and Rome, this study will support the training of an MA student in archival and digital newspaper research, the composition of two peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and a publicly oriented piece,” shares Dr. Effros. “It will also provide new content for my recently proposed undergraduate course on European medievalism. This project will help me network with scholarly partners working on nineteenth-century encounters with the catacombs, and I hope to organize a workshop or small conference on catacomb martyrs at the conclusion of the project.”
Dr. Bonnie Effros has been Professor and Head of the History Department at UBC since January 2022. Prior to this, she was Professor of European History and the Chaddock Chair in Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool (2017-2021). Her research and teaching address a number of chronological and thematic fields, including the history of archaeology, antiquarianism, and collecting in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; late antique and early medieval history and archaeology; and gender history and archaeology. The main geographic focus of her research is nineteenth- and twentieth-century France and its colonial possessions. However, her teaching addresses topics related to northwestern Europe and the lands surrounding the Mediterranean basin in both the early Middle Ages and the nineteenth and twentieth century.
