10

SANGUINIS EFFUSIONE AUT HEROICO VIRTUTUM EXERCITIO Material for a Political Anthropology of the Production and Contemporary Use of Canonized Sainthood Following his election in 1978, John-Paul II canonized and beatified more candidates than any earlier Pope. Often seen as breaking with tradition, this practice (continued by Benedict XVI since 2005) has been described as inflationist or, worse, a saint factory. It is evidence in any case of a new strategic analysis on the part of the Holy See of the Church’s place in the world, one in which appeals to sainthood play a central role as emblems and vectors of the “new evangelization” desired by Jean-Paul II. This leads one to consider the design of the Vatican system, in which canonization and beatification constitute both a form of accreditation and a means to an end. It also argues for shedding light on what these adjustments are capable of revealing about reorganizations of the contemporary. The objective here is thus to examine the sense (in terms of both meaning and direction) of the contemporary fabrication of the Elected and in this way bring together several components of the political anthropology of the present production and uses of canonized sainthood.