The Distinctive Features of Religious Festivities in the Spanish Netherlands: The Douai Celebrations for the Canonisation of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier

Abstract This paper is devoted to the spectacular ceremonies organised in the Low Countries to celebrate the canonisations of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. It focuses in particular on how local festive culture, characterised by a long tradition of spectacular Joyous Entries, has shaped these events. Compared to these previous models, what kind of new and specific language was created to express the transcendence of an absentee, the saint, and through him the Divine? Did a more obvious relationship exist between wonder and the sacred? We seek to answer these questions through the study of a particular case: the festivities organised by the university town of Douai. We explore the ways in which texts and images propose, through rather sophisticated displays, a re-creation of what happened rather than a representation.