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Research

Dreams, Light and Multi-Religious Miracles

Amanda Valdés Sánchez

Research Summary

This research examines the religious agenda of the order of Saint Jerome that ruled the sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in Extremadura, Spain, from 1389. Motifs such as dreams and light were used to create a multi-confessional audience for their collection of miracles. There was the construction of a particular image of the Virgin that could appeal to pilgrims of different faiths. It could and did compete with the more important Islamic devotional figures: the Prophet, Sufi masters and charismatic saints.

Researcher

Amanda Valdés Sánchez

Research Institution

Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

What is this about?

  • Images of dreams and light in religious iconography.
  • Miracles.
  • The Virgin Mary.
  • Religious proselytism and conversion.
  • Sufism.

What was done?

The research is an investigation into historical and literary sources, to analyse motifs in Catholic iconography and narrative.

Main findings and outputs

  • Religious images and narratives have to be seen in historical context. Thus:
    Sometime in the 15th century, a young North African woman of Muslim origin arrived at the town of Guadalupe in Extremadura in order to serve the monastery of the Virgin of Guadalupe, for whose devotion she had made such a long journey. To preserve her memory, the monastic community recorded her story in a series of texts collecting the miracles of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
  • The cult of the Virgin of Extremadura had its origin in the miraculous apparition of a Marian image before a shepherd, in the early 14th century, in the mountains of Villuercas near the town of Guadalupe.
  • Throughout the texts, the Virgin offers conversion to Muslims and protection to Christians by appearing to them in dreams. This is also a familiar theme in Sufi mysticism, where dreams are vehicles for illumination. The Qur’an and numerous hadiths also record the role of dreams in the revelation of God’s message to Muhammad.
  • In many texts, the Virgin appears as a dazzling, luminous vision. The same motif is also associated, in Sufism, with a vision of ecstasy as the act in which the divine light passes through the heart of the mystic.
  • The motifs of dreams and light were stressed to attract converts from Islam, and to prevent Christian attraction to Sufism.

Relevance to RE

The research is relevant to RE, as a detailed example of how a historical lens can be needed to picture religion in its diversity and complexity. Relevant images of the Virgin and text excerpts from Islamic sources could be placed side by side, students being asked to identify continuities and speculate on and research explanations.

Generalisability and potential limitations

As indicated above, the research functions as a detailed example. However, the principle of religious phenomena needing to be appreciated in their historical contexts is a general one.

Find out more

The original article is Amanda Valdés Sánchez,“A Desora Desperto y vio una Grand Claridat”: The Role of Dreams and Light in the Construction of a Multi-Confessional Audience of the Miracles of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Religions 2019: 10 (12), 652.

The article is available open-access at https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10120652

 

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