De Coimbra al paraíso: observaciones en torno a la muerte de los santos en dos relatos medievales portugueses

Abstract

El artículo analiza la manera en que la hagiografía portuguesa vinculada al Monasterio de Santa Cruz de Coimbra describe las circunstancias que rodearon la muerte de dos de los fundadores de ese cenobio, santos Tello y Teotonio. En particular, se considera las similitudes y diferencias entre ambos relatos, circunstancias derivadas de los respectivos contextos de producción y difusión de esas narraciones.

From Coimbra to Heaven. Observations about the Death of the Saints in two Medieval Portuguese Narratives Within the many discursive possibilities offered by Christianity, there is one that emphasizes a specific “death model” for saints and other people chosen by God. This text centers on this topic (which has, for several years, been discussed in specialized historiography) focusing on two particular characters of Lusitanian religious history: Tello and Teotonio, both hailing from the city of Coimbra and members of the famous group of canons who later established the monastery of Santa Cruz in that city. Both of them represent two different ways of legitimizing the Christian message which applies to their lives and deaths. Our objective is to inquire on the precise way in which the various authors of their biographies represent the last moments before their deaths, focusing (but sometimes carefully omitting) several aspects of the death model of the saints, developed by hagiography since the earliest times.