Gendered peace: policies and conflicts within Catholic Church Norms, Institutions and Practices

This contribution examines the production process of the relic-object in Catholic settings. Manual works are presented – technical knowhow and production rationale – focusing on the concrete actions performed by cloistered nuns on human remains (bones and fabric). These are turned into objects to which extra-human power is attributed. These women follow and establish the whole process of production, meaning-attribution and dissemination of the ‘sacred’ object, creating some niches of autonomous power for themselves within the wider ecclesiastic scenario. The contribution draws on an ethnographic study based on observant participation where the author shared the life of some French and Italian monastic groups. In particular, it focuses on the remains of Breton duchess Françoise d’Amboise (1427-1485), beatified by Pius IX in 1863 and considered to be the founder of the Carmelites in France. The practice of relic production is used as a political strategy in relation with the ecclesiastic world itself but also, indirectly, with the lay world. In fact, on the one hand it is used by the (female) monastic world to free itself from the (male) ecclesiastic world; on the other hand, it appears to be a way to emphasize full autonomy from the local political scenario.