American Patroness

"Marian shrines connect Catholics to each other and to a past replete with meaning and emotion. American Patroness explores twelve sites of Marian devotion, uncovering worlds of cultural, ethnic, and creative variety. Reading American Patroness is like taking a trip through American Catholic history, as witnessed by those who devote themselves to the Virgin Mary and who call the United States home.---Michael Pasquier, Professor Religious Studies and History, Louisiana State University This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of Marian shrine devotionalism that I have read, and I urge everyone interested in understanding the enduring power and persistence of shrines devoted to the Virgin Mary to read this book. American Patroness is an exciting and important new collection that features top scholars of Catholicism who effectively translate the power and beauty of belief, prayer, and community in shared and communal spaces. Deeply researched and clearly written and excellent for class use.---Kristy Nabhan-Warren, author of Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work, and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland American Patroness is a major contribution to the study of US Catholicism and American religion. The helpful introduction and vivid case studies offer surprising insights about the complexity and vitality of devotion today, not only at traditional shrines but also tourist sites, urban underpasses, and digital spaces. Indispensable for specialists but of interest to everyone who wants to know more about the contemporary religious landscape.---Thomas A. Tweed, author of Religion: A Very Short Introduction Mary tumbles into material existence at shrines throughout the United States, where devotees celebrate her special powers to help navigate their lives. In American Patroness, we finally have an interdisciplinary collection of studies of Marian ""shrinescapes,"" from old revered churches to new highway underpasses, in all their endurance, adaptability, mess, and excess. Particularly wonderful is the metaphor of ""conversation"" used by editors Katherine Dugan and Karen E. Park--a theoretical innovation that invites us to ""start anywhere"" in understanding places that ""pile on"" many meanings, including multiple Marys. Anyone interested in US religion will be lucky to tumble into this critical new analysis of Mary's reach and importance in America. Start anywhere, but get in on the conversation.---Julie Byrne, Msgr. Thomas J. Hartman Chair of Catholic Studies at Hofstra University"