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Constantia et Fortitudo. Der Kult des kapuzinischen Blutzeugen Fidelis von Sigmaringen zwischen ‘Pietas Austriaca’ und ‘Ecclesia Triumphans’: Die Verehrungsgeschichte des Protomärtyrers der Gegenreformation, des Kapuzinerordens und der ‘Congregatio de propaganda fide’ (1622–1729), by Matthias Emil Ilg

2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 133; Issue: 562 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cey098

1477-4534

Joachim Whaley,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Thirty years ago, Peter Burke explored the question of ‘how to become a Counter-Reformation saint’. Being a member of a religious order and being Italian or Spanish increased one’s chances; being a martyr seemed not to matter. Only two of the fifty-five individuals canonised between 1588 and 1767 were martyrs, and neither of them came from southern Europe. The first was the Bohemian priest Joannes de Pomuk or Jan Nepomucký (c.1350–93), canonised in 1721. The second was the German Capuchin Fidelis of Sigmaringen (1578–1622), who was honoured in 1729 and who is the subject of Matthias Emil Ilg’s monumental study. Fidelis of Sigmaringen was born Markus Rey or Roy, the son of a Sigmaringen publican and Bürgermeister, originally from Antwerp. Educated in Sigmaringen and at Freiburg, he became a doctor of laws in 1611. With the help of Count Charles II of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the Habsburg bailiff, he acquired the position of advocate and judge at the highest court of the lands of ‘Further Austria’ (Alsace, the Breisgau, the Aargau and others). Apparently incensed by mismanagement and corruption, he joined the Capuchins in 1612, assuming the name of Fidelis. Having opted to join an order that had become prominent in promoting the Tridentine programme of renewal, he threw himself into missionary work and, as abbot of the Capuchin house at Feldkirch from 1621, he planned a major tour of the Grisons, where tensions between Catholics and Protestants were particularly high, with the latter gaining the upper hand. It was there, in the Prättigau, that he and a group of soldiers who accompanied him became victims of a Protestant uprising on 24 April 1622.