In this week’s two-part guest post by Thabang Nkadimeng, we reflect on the nature and efficacy of sacramentals in religious circles and charms in popular culture. CIHA often highlights religious and academic voices to explore connections among issues of faith, governance, gender, and race in colonial and post-colonial contexts in our section of the blog called “Exploring Religion, Faith, and Tradition.” The first post in this series begins a discussion of the ways that religious fervor in South Africa has migrated towards a new object of worship and the second part gives a historical study of how sacramentals and relics are understood in Catholic teaching. We hope you stay tuned for both and, as always, we welcome your comments and feedback!
Part I:
MIGRATIONS OF THE HOLY: SACRAMENTALS OR CHARMS? A SOUTH AFRICAN CATHOLIC DICHOTOMY
By Thabang Nkadimeng[1]
Introduction
Søren Kierkegaard’s famous tale of a clown’s futile mission to warn a village threatened by fire, in order to illustrate how the theologian’s vocation to a world closed in on itself, is a start for us to understand the theme of my two-part post: “Migrations of the Holy: Sacramentals or Charms? A South African Catholic Dichotomy”.
[A] travelling circus in Denmark caught fire. The manager thereupon sent the clown, who was already dressed and made up for the performance, into the neighbouring village to fetch help, especially as there was a danger that the fire would spread across the fields of dry stubble and engulf the village itself. The clown hurried into the village and requested the inhabitants to come as quickly as possible to the blazing circus and help to put the fire out. But the villagers took the clown’s shouts simply for an excellent piece of advertising, meant to attract as many people as possible to the performance; they applauded the clown and laughed till they cried. The clown felt more like weeping than laughing; he tried in vain to get people to be serious, to make it clear to them that this was no stunt, that he was not pretending but was in bitter earnest, that there really was a fire. His supplications only increased the laughter; people thought he was playing his part splendidly – until finally the fire did engulf the village; it was too late for help, and both circus and village were burned to the ground.[2]
This analogy could be used as an introduction to the theme of my discussion, stating that there is a situation at hand that others may find silly, but needs both a theological and pastoral seriousness. I may appear in my presentation of this theme as an exasperated clown seeking to draw your attention to a reality that cannot be ignored. I consider Charles Taylor (author of A Secular Age, published in 2007) a ‘North American clown’ of great admiration, hence some of his ‘clownish contributions’ in a secular age will be used here as a means of understanding our own current South African situation. Superstition is not solely an African reality, but a totally human reality within the mindset of many and for theists cause for concern. This presentation focuses on the South African Catholic approach, yet could be used in other faith beliefs where the human person finds himself/herself.
Section One deals with the status quaestionis (Migrations of the Holy) where the main question is raised. Sections Two and Three deal with the understanding of both sacramentals and charms in Catholicism and South African culture, especially urban South African culture. Section Four focuses on why I call this a South African Catholic dichotomy – is there some form of duality? In conclusion, Section Five deals with how this presentation relates to the relevance in popular faith and canonical faith of the Church in Southern African Christianity.
- The Status Quaestionis – Migrations of the Holy?
In the year 2011 William Cavanaugh, a political theologian, published his book entitled Migrations of the Holy: God, State, and the Political Meaning of the Church. For Cavanaugh ‘religion,’ at least in the West, “continues to fade or has made a comeback in the contemporary world…” Yes, William Cavanaugh argues that religious fervor never left, it has only migrated towards a new object of worship. In Migrations of the Holy he examines the disconcerting modern transfer of the sacred devotion from the Church to the nation-state” (backpage). The term “Migrations of the Holy” is a borrowed phrase from the Church Historian John Bossy (1933-2015) who spoke of the transfer of power from Church to State as Cavanaugh mentions.
After reading and analyzing Cavanaugh’s intellectual observations, it is clear that in Africa, at least in urban South Africa, we are faced with the Migrations of the Holy from Church to culture and at the same time faced with a misplacement of the object of worship. By culture I mean the current living conditions of urban South Africans. We are faced here with what might be called ‘The Holy’ and ‘The Profane,’ to use that ancient distinction which has its source from Premodern Religion which mixed the ‘holy’ and the ‘profane’; this distinction is the fruit of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations.
The key terms used are Sacramental and Charms. These terms are pregnant with meaning and need to be unpacked. However, in regards this ‘spiritual realm’ of the migrations of the holy, the definition cannot solely suffice the human mind. Charles Taylor correctly speaks of the pre-modern world: that “in the pre-modern world, meanings are not only in minds, but can reside in things, or in various kinds of extra-human but intra-cosmic subjects.”[3]
People turn to two opposing realities which are sacramentals or charms for one or other reason: either for protection or healing, rarely others use sacramentals and charms as a sentimental value. Sin and illness have a history of being closely linked. Many superstitious people and religious people would state that one is physically ill due to their sinfulness, as I discovered in the many interviews I conducted[4]. The understanding is that the internal illness brings out an external illness. The Church professed this and that “explains the decisions of the Lateran and other councils warning against recourse to ordinary medicine in place of spiritual remedies, and forbidding altogether the frequenting of infidel doctors (e.g., Jews).”[5]
- The Historical and Current Understanding of Sacramentals
2.1 Catholic Teaching on Sacramentals
The Catholic understanding of sacramentals, which is meant to explain the Catholic doctrine as revisited in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), is closely linked to the understanding of sacraments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: “Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water (which recalls Baptism).”[6] Historically understood, the very notion of sacramentals depends on the definition – and the number – of sacraments. This dates from the Scholastic Period (3rd and 4th Lateran Councils). Sacramentals are ‘rituals’ which were not elevated to the status of sacraments. For Protestants who only accept two sacraments, this is mysterious.
The history and present state of polite civilization had three key words, known as three kinds of dangerous religion, used by most eighteenth century writers; these being superstition, fanaticism, and enthusiasm. Superstition “designated the enchanted dimension of religion, the rites and cults and practices which partook of magic in their understanding…” ‘Fanaticism’ designated the kind of religious certainty that seemed to the agent concerned to license going well beyond, and even committing gross violations against the order of mutual benefit. While ‘enthusiasm’ meant the certainty that one heard the voice of God, and could act on it, without having to rely on external authority, ecclesiastical or civil.”[7]
2.2 Relics in the early Church
The remains of the martyrs (witnesses) are treated as sacramentals when they bring forth a supernatural effect. In Augustine’s City of God there is the allusion of the veneration of relics[8] and the real veneration thereof. In his City of God, chapter 8, book 22 Augustine of Hippo mentions his acceptance of the veneration of relics. He states:
“The miracles were published that they might produce faith, and the faith which they produced brought them into greater prominence. For they are read in congregations that they may be believed, and yet they would not be so read unless they were believed. For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ, whether by His sacraments or by the prayers or relics of His saints; but they are not so brilliant and conspicuous as to cause them to be published with such glory as accompanied the former miracles.”
In regards the intercession of the saints Augustine states that: “The miracle which was wrought at Milan when I was there, and by which a blind man was restored to sight, could come to the knowledge of many; for not only is the city a large one, but also the emperor was there at the time, and the occurrence was witnessed by an immense concourse of people that had gathered to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, which had long lain concealed and unknown, but were now made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream, and discovered by him. By virtue of these remains the darkness of that blind man was scattered, and he saw the light of day.” This is the miracle Augustine attributes to the intercession of the saints. Hence, the remains of the martyrs (witnesses) are treated as sacramentals when they bring forth a supernatural effect.
2.3 Historical Practices
Down through the ages and in different parts of the world sacramentals were used differently. However, the common understanding was that sacramentals linked both the physical and the spiritual realms. “The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church’s sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the Stations of the Cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.”[9]
Other common practices (ancient and contemporary) are such as these:
- In Canterbury people would carry phials of water hoping for a cure, because they believed the water was mixed with the blood of the martyr Thomas à Becket.
- Drinking and bathing with the water from the streams of Ngome, KwaZulu-Natal where it is believed Mary the Mother of Jesus appeared calling Herself ‘Tabernacle of the Most High’.
- Drinking of water from Lourdes, Fatima, the river Jordan etc.
- Blessing of the throat with the crossed-candles on the feast of St. Blaise.
- Making the Sign of the Cross. St. Augustine has a story to tell in his Chapter 8, book 22: “In the same city of Carthage lived Innocentia, a very devout woman of the highest rank in the state. She had cancer in one of her breasts, a disease which, as physicians say, is incurable…On the approach of Easter, she was instructed in a dream to wait for the first woman that came out from the baptistery after being baptized, and to ask her to make the sign of Christ upon her sore. She did so, and was immediately cured.”
- Blessing of houses.
- Blessing of food.
Recently, early this year, I took a group of pilgrims from different denominations to Ngome and it was clear from the testimonies they gave after the pilgrimage that some had received physical healing whereas the majority received inner healing. It is conclusive that inner healing is linked to the psychological state of the person, hence inner peace is of itself healing.
2.4 The Testimonies of St. Augustine
It is important to link this topic of sacramentals and charms to the testimonies of St. Augustine of Hippo mainly to point out that the miracles wrought by sacramentals are not contemporary but show God’s work from time immemorial.
- There was a fellow-townsman of ours at Hippo, Florentius, an old man, religious and poor, who supported himself as a tailor. Having lost his coat, and not having means to buy another, he prayed to the Twenty Martyrs, who have a very celebrated memorial shrine in our town, begging in a distinct voice that he might be clothed. Some scoffing youngmen, who happened to be present, heard him, and followed him with their sarcasm as he went away, as if he had asked the martyrs for fifty pence to buy a coat. But he, walking on in silence, saw on the shore a great fish, gasping as if just cast up, and having secured it with the good-natured assistance of the youths, he sold it for curing to a cook of the name of Catosus, a good Christian man, telling him how he had come by it, and receiving for it three hundred pence, which he laid out in wool, that his wife might exercise her skill upon, and make into a coat for him. But, on cutting up the fish, the cook found a gold ring in its belly; and immediately, moved with compassion, and influenced, too, by religious fear, gave it up to the man, saying, “See how the Twenty Martyrs have clothed you.”
- When the bishop Projectus was bringing the relics of the most glorious martyr Stephen to the waters of Tibilis, a great concourse of people came to meet him at the shrine. There a blind woman entreated that she might be led to the bishop who was carrying the relics. He gave her the flowers he was carrying. She took them, applied them to her eyes, and immediately saw. Those who were present were astounded, while she, with every expression of joy, preceded them, pursuing her way without further need of a guide.
- Lucillus bishop of Sinita, in the neighborhood of the colonial town of Hippo, was carrying in procession some relics of the same martyr, which had been deposited in the castle of Sinita. A fistula under which he had long labored, and which his private physician was watching an opportunity to cut, was suddenly cured by the mere carrying of that sacred fardel, — at least, afterwards there was no trace of it in his body…Eucharius, a Spanish priest, residing at Calama, was for a long time a sufferer from stone. By the relics of the same martyr, which the bishop Possidius brought him, he was cured. Afterwards the same priest, sinking under another disease, was lying dead, and already they were binding his hands. By the succor of the same martyr he was raised to life, the priest’s cloak having been brought from the oratory and laid upon the corpse…
At Hippo a Syrian called Bassus was praying at the relics of the same martyr for his daughter, who was dangerously ill. He too had brought her dress with him to the shrine. But as he prayed, behold, his servants ran from the house to tell him she was dead. His friends, however, intercepted them, and forbade them to tell him, lest he should bewail her in public. And when he had returned to his house, which was already ringing with the lamentations of his family, and had thrown on his daughter’s body the dress he was carrying, she was restored to life.
There, too, the son of a man, Irenæus, one of our tax-gatherers, took ill and died. And while his body was lying lifeless, and the last rites were being prepared, amidst the weeping and mourning of all, one of the friends who were consoling the father suggested that the body should be anointed with the oil of the same martyr. It was done, and he revived…
Likewise Eleusinus, a man of tribunitian rank among us, laid his infant son, who had died, on the shrine of the martyr, which is in the suburb where he lived, and, after prayer, which he poured out there with many tears; he took up his child alive.
These testimonies give a clear indication that sacramentals have a supernatural effect, and as mentioned above, like the remains of the martyrs (witnesses) when treated as sacramentals, they bring forth a supernatural effect.
In the second post of this two-part series, Thabang Nkadimeng follows up with a discussion of charms in urban South Africa and calls for a new approach to the understanding of the use of sacramentals as sacramentals and not as charms. We hope you stay tuned for the second part of this post coming later this week!
[1] The author of this paper is an associate lecturer in the History of Christianity program at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; Adjunct lecturer at the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary and Teacher of Italian at the Dante Alighieri Institute. Currently also President of the Catholic Theological Society of Southern Africa.
[2] J. Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 39-40.
[3] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, 33.
[4] Interviews were conducted in Sandton, Alexandra township in Johannesburg in the year 2015 and 2016.
[5] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, 39.
[6] CCC 1668.
[7] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, 239.
[8] Relics are physical remains of the Saints (called first-class relics) or other belongings of the Saints which take on the class called either second or third class relics.
[9] CCC 1674.