The Medieval Cult of Saint Dominic of Silos (review)

286ReviewsLa coránica 33. 1, 2004 Lappin, Anthony. The Medieval Cult of Saint Dominic of Silos. Leeds: Money Publishing, 2002. 445 pp. ISBN 1-90265391-2 The Medieval Cult of Saint Dominic of Silos is a formidable and comprehensive study on the cult and hagiographical life of Saint Dominic of Silos. Anthony Lappin's impeccable research has brought to the fore one of the most important religious figures of medieval Spain. The book is divided into two sections and ten chapters. In the first section, Lappiti focuses on the life and death of the saint and the subsequent twelfth-century hagiographical text, the Vita Dominici Exiliensis. The second section is devoted to an indepth discussion of the manifestations of the saint in the thirteenth century and bevond, focusing on Gonzalo de Berceo's IWe de Santo Domingo and other literary texts. Lappili argues that it is only through an examination of both the historical and the literary versions of the life of Saint Dominic that we will be able to appreciate a more complete picture of the saint. The first part of Lappin's book is composed of six chapters and focuses on Dominic's life and death and the Vita Dominici Exiliensis, a hagiographical work in Latin authored primarily by Grimaldus, a monk at Silos. In Chapter one, Lappili discusses the evolution of the text of the Vita Dominici. He meticulously records the chronology of the various manuscripts in order to make a strong argument for a tenninus ante quern of 1120. Bv drawing our attention to the textual variations among the interpolations in the manuscript , Lappin argues that there may have been as manv as ten different writers of books II and III of the l'ita and that these authors may have been motived in part by a desire to mold Dominic's reputation. In Chapter nvo, Lappin uses the biographical details included in the Vita to discuss Dominic's life. This chapter ends with the famous vision that Dominic experiences at his death: a supernatural experience, claims Lappin, that will define Dominic's sanctity; Lappin revisits the treatment of this vision throughout his book. In the remaining chapters of Part One, Lappin examines various aspects of Dominic's posthumous miracles: the Upes of miracles; who bore witness to these miracles; and their recurring motifs. Lappin finds, interestingly , that it was the laity, and not members of the clergy or monks, who were most likely to claim that a miracle had occurred through the intercession of Dominic. These lay folk, mainly pilgrims and often women, had a great impact on the wealth of the monaster)', and the dissemination of the cult of the saint. Chapters four and five focus on the two most important motifs found in Dominic's miracles: exorcism and liberation from capture. Lappin's theory La corónica 33.1 (Fall, 2004): 286-89 Reviews287 on demonic possession reflects current trends in the study of this subject, indicating that the exorcisms at Silos were a reflection of a population suffering from the after-effects of warfare. Like the "possessed" who were tried during the Salem witch trials, the afflicted, generally women, exhibited signs of extreme stress due to life on the frontier. Lappin supports the idea that the continued presence of demonic possession in Europe "affirms the values and power of the Church and maintains its authority" but refuses to believe that the monks encouraged this behavior simply to maintain control over the laity (163). Lappin claims, instead, that the tradition of exorcisms reflects the intersection between the desires of the people and the desires of the Church. The discussion on Dominic as the great liberator begins with the tale of Servandus and his rescue by Dominic from Muslim-held Medinaceli, about 200 kilometers from the church. It is this tale that transforms the cult of Dominic, both enlarging Dominic's role as miracle worker and bestowing upon him a "national" profile. Dominic not only figures in many miracle tales of escape, he also appears in Muslim folklore as a very real enemy, one with whom the embattled Moors felt they had to contend. Interestingly, Dominic's cult, which had fallen into decline at...