ABSTRACT
In March 1622 Pope Gregory XV canonized the Jesuit leaders Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. The spectacular ceremonies held in Rome soon echoed throughout the Catholic world and notably in cities across the Southern Low Countries where the Society of Jesus settled. There, the Jesuits celebrated their first saints with emphasis and inventiveness as part of a larger effort to combat the spread of Protestantism. In celebrating universal saints, the Jesuits worked to spectacularize public religious ceremonies in order to entrench Jesuit identity by publicizing the deeds of and cultivating devotion to these newly canonized saints. By investigating the ephemeral decorations produced for these ceremonies in specific Southern Netherlands areas, this chapter explores the Jesuit campaign to build a spectacular culture based on inspiring sacer horror in participants that would aid Catholic confessionalization in a period of political and religious tension.
