I’ve organised the session “Ihesu dulcis: Devotion to the Holy Name in Medieval Europe” at the 52nd annual International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 11-14, Western Michigan University). The session offers three papers that examine Holy Name devotion in vernacular texts and practices in the late-medieval period (with a focus on England in particular). Stephen Moore’s paper, “Chivalry, Piety, and Devotion to the Name of Christ in Marie de France’s Saint Patrick’s Purgatory,” addresses Owein’s dedication to, and reliance on, the Holy Name, with a special emphasis on Marie’s use of the imagery of sound. My own paper, “‘et in calculo nomen novum scriptum‘: Pearl and the Holy Name of Jesus,” considers some intriguing parallels between the fourteenth-century elegiac dream vision and the votive mass of the Holy Name of Jesus as found in the Beauchamp Missal (Oxford, Trinity College MS 8). Finally, Rob Lutton’s “Action and Interpretation in the Late Medieval English Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus” draws on religious miscellanies, luturgical texts, and material artefacts to interrogate how the Christocentric turn to the human name of Jesus affected the practices of ordinary Christians.

This promises to be an exciting and interesting session. We hope to see many of you there.

Session 30 Bernhard 158 – Thursday at 10.00 AM (May 11)

Chair: Laura Godfrey, Univ. of Connecticut

“Chivalry, Piety, and Devotion to the Name of Christ in Marie de France’s Saint Patrick’s Purgatory”
Stephen G. Moore, Univ. of Regina

“‘et in calculo nomen novum scriptum‘: Pearl and the Holy Name of Jesus”
B.S.W. Barootes, Univ. of Toronto

“Action and Interpretation in the Late Medieval English Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus”
Rob Lutton, Univ. of Nottingham