Observant Reform and the Cults of New Dominican Saints in the Southeastern Adriatic

Abstract

The research on the historical currents of the Observant reform, its diffu-sion in the earliest stages, as well as its periodical local and global revivals throughout the following two centuries, is inextricably linked to the study of the promotion of cults of saints. Building on the types of sainthood pre-ferred by and partially formed in Mendicant circles (notably living saints, but also local saints), the Observant friars supported veneration of their contemporaries, creating thus an array of local beati whose cults frequent-ly gained wider recognition. This paper is examining the appearance and diffusion of saints’ cults among the reformed Dominican order in the southeastern Adriatic, that is, in the territory of Dubrovnik and Kotor from the first reformist attempts at the end of the fourteenth century to the Observant efforts united with the post-Tridentine ambience in the later sixteenth century. In addition to crucial texts by Serafino Razzi (who also described devotional objects and images), the analysis is mainly conducted.