A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Study of Floral Experiences in the Diary of St
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ROSES OF LOVE, VIOLETS OF HUMILITY AND LILIES OF SUFFERING: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL HERMENEUTIC STUDY OF FLORAL EXPERIENCES IN THE DIARY OF ST. FAUSTINA KOWALSKA (1905-1938) Renate Anna Kandler Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree in Religious Studies Department of Classics and Religious Studies Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Renate Anna Kandler, Ottawa, Canada, 2013 für meine Omi ein Leben inspiriert von Blumen ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 SECTION ONE: METHOD, HISTORY AND THE LIFE OF ST. FAUSTINA KOWALSKA CHAPTER ONE: METHOD: SEMIOTIC PHENOMENOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS ..........7 Phenomenology as a General Field Phenomenology of Religion Hermeneutics A Critical Comparison of Phenomenology of Religion and Hermeneutics ...................................13 A Phenomenological, Hermeneutic Method ..................................................................................16 The Method of Max van Manen Lifeworld Exisentials Written Experience as Data: The Diary of Faustina Kowalska CHAPTER TWO: HISTORY OF FLOWER USE ........................................................................45 Flowers in Greece, Rome and Early Christianity (335 B.C. – 476 A.D.) Flowers in The European Middle Ages (477 – 1453) Flowers from the Renaissance to Modernity (1454 – Present) CHAPTER THREE: THE LIFE OF ST. MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA (1905-1938) .........62 iii SECTION TWO: LIFEWORLD EXISTENTIALS OF SPACE, TIME, BODY AND RELATIONALITY CHAPTER FOUR: FLOWERS IN SPACE ..................................................................................75 Introduction: Space and the Flower in the Writings of St. Faustina ..............................................76 Orientation in Space .......................................................................................................................77 A Catholic Spatial Cosmology: The Ascent into Heaven and Descent into Hell Experiences of Space .....................................................................................................................81 Verticality: Upward Striving and Downward Pull The Ascending Flower and Descending Root Flowers as Space The Presence of Flowers in Space Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................101 CHAPTER FIVE: FLOWERS IN TIME .....................................................................................104 Introduction: Time and Flowers in the Writings of St. Faustina .................................................105 Orientation in Time ......................................................................................................................106 Gardens in Time: The Gardens of Eden, Paradise and Gethsemane Experiences of Time ....................................................................................................................114 The Predictable Movements of the Flower in Time Flowers Budding, Blossoming and Fading Flowers Progressing through Stages of the Day The Seasonal Stages of the Flower The Temporal Cycles of Floral Life Becoming a Flower and a Garden Life, Death, Sacrifice and Flowers Overcoming Temporality Death and the Flower Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................143 CHAPTER SIX: FLOWERS AND THE BODY ........................................................................146 Introduction: The Body and the Flower in the Writings of St. Faustina......................................147 iv Orientation in the Body ................................................................................................................148 The Body as Pain The Fragrant Body of Floral Offering: The Floral Sweetness of St. Faustina Experiences of Body ....................................................................................................................160 Important Features of the Floral Body: Colour Meditating on the Floral Body Life Experienced as a Flower: Faustina’s Hidden Floral Body Faustina Transformed into a Floral Body Faustina Blossoms for God Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................181 CHAPTER SEVEN: FLOWERS AND RELATIONALITY ......................................................183 Introduction: Relating to God and Flowers in the Writings of St. Faustina ................................184 Orientation in Relation to the Other.............................................................................................185 Experience of Relationality..........................................................................................................186 Flowers as Vessels Flowers as Virtues St. Faustina and the Sacrificial Fires of Love Flowers and the Sun Flowers and Flames Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................199 SECTION THREE: CONCLUSION CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................201 The Message of Faustina after her Death ....................................................................................201 Faustina and the Catholic Church Faustina’s Congregation Today and Status of her New Congregation Faustina’s Relationship with God through Writing .....................................................................213 Writing as a Phenomenological Activity The Role of Language Synthesis of Existential Modalities ..............................................................................................222 v SECTION FOUR: APPENDIX I CHAPTER NINE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. FAUSTINA KOWALSKA (1905-1938)...226 Section 1: Helena Kowalska (1905-1925) Section 2: Sister Mary Faustina “the Theologian” (1925-1928) Helena Kowalska enters the World Novitiate Section 3: The Hysteric Visionary” and “Princess” (1928-1932) Section 4: Third Probation and Final Vows (1932-1933) Section 5: Living in Vilnius (1933-1936) A New Congregation Section 6: A Slow Death (1936) Section 7: Saying Goodbye (1937-1938) SECTION FIVE: BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................313 vi ABSTRACT The presence of flowers is felt in Catholic architecture, literature, artwork, personal histories and devotional practices. This, however, has not always been the case. The Catholic Church has had a long and tumultuous relationship with flowers, the focus of which has been the subject of considerable scholarship (e.g. Fisher (2011, 2007), Ward (1999), Winston-Allen (1997), Goody (1993), Coats (1970)). What has not been much considered is a phenomenological treatment of Catholic floral experience, and how such experiences have shaped individual and shared understandings of the Catholic faith. This thesis seeks to redress this omission through an exploration of the life of the Polish Catholic mystic, St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), whose mystical experiences with the divine were explicitly mediated and narrated through flowers. Through Faustina’s diary, Divine Mercy in my Soul, we gain access to powerful, and unequivocally Catholic, experiences with flowers which comprise the very centre of her religious convictions. This thesis queries the ways in which flowers have dynamically shaped, and have been shaped by, St. Faustina's relationship with God and Catholic holy figures. To address this question I use the semiotic, phenomenological and hermeneutic approach of Max van Manen. Van Manen uses four elements of lived experience he calls lifeworld existentials, these are: lived space, lived time, lived body and lived relationality. These four categories are applied to St. Faustina’s life as she engages with God spatially, temporally, corporeally and relationally; each reveals the centrality of flowers in her religious experiences. While this thesis focuses on the religio-floral experiences of a particular mystic-saint, its significance lies also in the broader Catholic narrative of which it is a part. Writing about flowers was a transformative medium in Faustina's life and has been historically significant in the lives of many other Catholic saints and mystics who recorded similar experiences. This thesis, in describing the details of St. Faustina’s floral-saturated experiences from her diary, reveals a particularized instance of a paradigmatic Catholic phenomenon whereby flowers provide access to the sacred. vii INTRODUCTION All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.1 At its most basic level this thesis explores the presence of flowers in human life. It does so without judging or imposing analysis; rather it presents, through rich description, the ongoing role that flowers have occupied in the life of one individual, and the significance they have held