Moving Crucifixes in Modern Spain

Commonweal, Nov 6, 1992 by Lawrence S. Cunningham

A few months ago I was a guest "expert" on a radio-talk show in Washington, D.C. The topic was weeping statues reported in churches in Virginia. These reports were all the more sensational since they seemed to have involved a purportedly stigmatic priest whose only other claim to fame (I do not make this up!) was a title in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most consecutive hours spent on a roller-coaster.

The lines lit up with many folks possessed of strong opinions on the subject. One fey caller suggested that Our Lady really was weeping in the churches and her consternation had been triggered by the parlous state of Virginia's Democratic party. His tongue-in-cheek observation had at least this much truth in it: statues that move or bleed or weep, visions, appantions, etc., tend to spring up in times of crisis or social tumult. That point is underscored in William Christian's careful study of three Spanish towns early in this century where moving crucifixes were seen and, after which, pilgrimages and devotions ensued.

Christian is a careful scholar of popular religion in Spain and this work has all the hallmarks of his earlier studies: sympathy, care with the sources, a sense of religious culture, and a resistance to any facile reductionism. One point that Christian makes may have contemporary relevance: all three "activations" (his word) of Christ came as a result of the revival of popular religious strategies that had been dormant for a long time. That point struck me forcefully as I thought of today's renewed interest in post-Tridentine forms of piety and the concurrent reporting of pious phenomena in the wake of post-Vatican II changes (not long ago I witnessed thousands of Medjugorje devotees wander the Notre Dame campus in anticipation of a big conference) of all stripes.

Those interested in popular religion and religious sociology should familiarize themselves with Christian's work. He is one of the more interesting of those historians who today are doing pioneering work in the field of popular religion. This particular book is somewhat restricted in its topic but its relevance is much wider.

LAWRENCE S. CUNNINGHAM chairs the department of theology at the University of Notre Dame; his Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master (Paulist) was recently published.