MI Working Group: Br. John Glasenapp (Columbia University), "To Be Witness to These Things: Virtual Participation and the Exultet Rolls of Southern Italy"

Aside from their inventive format and geographic proximity, the Exultet rolls of southern Italy differ significantly in their layout, visual program, and even text. Questions of audience, purpose, and perception of their moving contents have compounded the difficulty of scholarly interpretation. I argue that the chanted text and unfurling roll performatively transform celebrants and congregation alike into witnesses of the resurrection event in the liturgical hic et nunc. The rolls imaginatively and dramatically express a theology of lay participation fundamental to the Vigil liturgy itself and, in particular, to the rite of baptism, which shortly follows in the Beneventan liturgy.

This is a meeting of the Medieval Liturgy Working Group. All are invited to join by Zoom: https://notredame.zoom.us/j/91936543391

Questions? Contact the working group organizer, Eleonora Celora, at ecelora@nd.edu.