‘Sanctify yourselves and be holy’ : Hospitallers and their Counter-Reformation saints

Abstract

This paper will seek to take the Order of St John as a case study in the culture of Counter-Reformation saints, analysing the first century from the Council of Trent. It has a dual purpose, understanding both the fabric of the Hospitaller vocation as presented through the hagiographies, as well as the constant need for an exempt religious Order to conform with Rome. Although the subject merits a more ample discussion, the present paper will seek to give at least a glimpse into such issues as conformity, tradition, miracles and universality in relation with the saints of the Order of St John from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. It is in these hundred years that a major refashioning was taking place, one which combined the old with the new saints and martyrs that were being brought to light by the recent clash with Protestantism and the subsequent ‘soul-searching’ that the Church experienced