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The article offers a revisionist account of the early circulation of copies of the Madonna of Santa Maria Maggiore, known since the nineteenth century as the Salus Populi Romani. Traditionally, the propulsion of the image into global circulation has been attributed variously to Pius V or Francisco Borja, the third Superior General of the Society of Jesus. The article argues that the circulation of the Saint Luke Madonna, as it was known at the time, was closely tied to the martyr's cult that grew up around the Jesuit missionary Inácio de Azevedo and the so-called Brazil Martyrs, a group of Jesuits murdered by Calvinist corsairs off the Canary Islands in 1570. Azevedo had intended to carry a copy of the Roman icon to Brazil, a copy that perished at sea with Azevedo and the party of Jesuit missionaries. The article suggests that the popularity of the image among Jesuits in Europe and the overseas missions was fueled by the nascent martyr's cult that followed Azevedo's death. Painted copies of the Saint Luke Madonna came to function, together with relics of the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne, as proxies for the missing material remains of the martyred Jesuits. The article argues that while the distribution of the image was globally extensive, circulation was restricted to an internal Jesuit martyr's cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the symbols used for representing power in the Middle Ages were the relics of saints and martyrs. When it came to political power, relics were one of the most cherished symbolic instruments to achieve legitimation of political power. However, no texts from the Middle Ages can be found that reflect the practice of associating relics with power. Rather, we have to assume or derive that reflection indirectly through narratives and stories around the relics present in the culture and religion of the time. This article reflects on the symbolic use of relics from a theological–political perspective: What kind of power acts through relics? What meaning of power is embodied in their political use of them? The thesis that the article will defend is that reflection on the politics of relics leads to a resignification of the idea of power in the Middle Ages, which is closely connected to the idea of charisma originating in the writings of the Apostle Paul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]