Religious History Seminar 2021

On February 22, from 18h99 to 20h00, the 2021 cycle of the Religious History Seminar begins, under the theme "Portuguese Catholicism in Diaspora: Agents, Institutions and Religious Sensibilities". 

The first online session, which will address the topic "Between Portugal and Rome: The path of the archbishop of Braga and antipope Gregory VIII Maurice "Burdino" (1099-1121)", will be attended by Francesco Renzi (UCP-CEHR).

The main objective of this seminar is to present the sources and historical context in which one of the most interesting and unique clerics of the 11th and 12th centuries lived: the archbishop of Braga and antipope Gregory VIII Maurice "Burdino". Probably originally from Limoges or the Limousin region (now France), Maurice made an important ecclesiastical career in the Iberian Peninsula (in Toledo, Coimbra and Braga), was a pilgrim in Jerusalem, passing through Rome and Constantinople, and finally antipope or pope in Rome, supported by the king of Germany and emperor Henry V, against Popes Gelasius II and Callistus II, ending his days in the monastery of the Holy Trinity of Cava de' Tirreni, near Salerno, in the Norman kingdom of Sicily. The personal and ecclesiastical trajectory and the Iberian and international sources in which the story of Maurice "Burdino" is told allow for a formidable journey in medieval Europe. His life and travels synthesize in an exemplary way the great processes that reconfigured the Roman Church and shaped Europe in the epoch of passage represented by the 11th and 12th centuries.

The 2021 Religious History Seminar cycle, organized in partnership with the Cabido Portucalense and with the support of CITCEM of the University of Porto, consists of 12 sessions on a monthly basis between February and December 2021 (bimonthly in June and October and with an interruption in August).

See the program for the 2021 Religious History Seminar cycle here.