Saints and Sinners

with Lisa Kaborycha

For two thousand years the stories of Christian saints have captivated the imagination. They fearlessly battled evil, exhibited superhuman strength, and displayed unimaginable courage in the face of grisly torture, embracing death in defense of their faith. Margaret of Antioch defeated a dragon in her prison cell; the knight Galgano Guidotti pulled an enchanted sword from a stone; and Lucia of Syracuse endured burning with oil and having her eyes gouged out. In addition to these legendary heroes and those named in the Bible, there were also numerous contemporary holy figures in Renaissance Italy who were revered as saints during their lifetimes for their mystical visions, prophecies, and the power to work miracles. This seminar series examines the extraordinary stories of the holy men and women from all walks of life— soldiers, sculptors, servants, surgeons, murderers, kings, queens, prostitutes, peasants, popes and nuns—who provided inspiration for innumerable artistic masterpieces.

We pose the question: what was the reality behind these saints’ lives and what made their cults—many of which persist to this day—so compelling for centuries? 

Lisa Kaborycha, Ph.D. in History, University of California, Berkeley, is a former Fulbright Fellow, recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities award and Harvard’s Villa I Tatti Center for Renaissance Studies fellowship. She is the author of three books: Voices from the Italian Renaissance, A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2024); A Short History of Renaissance Italy, 2nd edition, (Routledge, 2023); and A Corresponding Renaissance: Letters Written by Italian Women 1375-1650, (Oxford Univ Press, 2016). Kaborycha has been living in Florence, Italy since 2007 doing archival research and teaching at American universities.  

10 February - 3 March 2026
Tuesdays, 18:00-19:30

In person lectures in the Library and simultaneously available on Zoom.

Recordings will be available for registered participants.