Miraculous Healing for the Warrior Soul
Transforming Fear, Violence, and Shame in Fourteenth-Century Provence
in Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
Author:
Nicole Archambeau
Nicole Archambeau
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This article considers the crises of plague, civil war, and mercenary invasion that Provençal communities faced in the years between 1343 and 1363. Canonization inquest testimony reveals that both combatants and noncombatants prayed to the holy woman, Countess Delphine de Puimichel, to heal the spiritual sickness of violence. In their testimonies, witnesses relived moments of crisis when they had used Delphine's special relationship to God to escape death, fear, and humiliation.