Ljubav Božja kao odvratiteljica od zavodljivih napasti u Kanižlićevoj Svetoj Rožaliji

The objective of this paper is to study the purpose and function of the allegorical fig ure of Love of God (also called Heavenly Love) in the religious long poem Sveta Rožalija, panoramitska djevica by Antun Kanižlić, most probably written in 1759 and published post humously in 1780. This figure appears on multiple occasions to the saint during her stay in seclusion in the cave, nourishing her, shielding and averting from numerous temptations (such as Infernal Temptation, Vanity of the World, as well as the fairy Lechery and her son Lovey-Boy 1 ). It helps her persevere in her ascetic spiritual growth and overcome all adversities plaguing her. I intend to determine and analyse in this paper which rhetorical methods it puts to use in order to persuade Rožalija to comply with her guidance, and what poetic imagery it invokes by drawing from rich mediaeval and early-modern col lective Christian imagination. I thereby analyse the Love of God not only as a theological concept and a guarantee of the divinely ordained world and value system, but primarily – which has so far possibly been neglected in literary theory and criticism – as an emotion of supreme importance (God is love, 1 John 4:8; 4:16).