Contained in:
  • Pain fragments
  • Edited by Tine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi, Kristof Smeyers, Maria Heidegger
Book Chapter

Bearing witness to pain. The politics of martyrdom in late modernity

  • Natalia Núñez Bargueño

Martyrdom provides a critical lens for reconsidering how modernity has perceived pain. This chapter explores the revival of the martyr as a collective symbol and a tool for forging imagined communities, both religious and secular. It challenges rigid binaries between religion, nationalism, modernity, and revolution. In the 19th century, martyrdom moved beyond the Christian imaginary, as the martyr’s body became a contested site of spiritual, political and cultural meaning. Religious and political leaders, as well as national and ethnic communities, renegotiated the boundaries of the sacred and the profane through diverse commemorations. Among other evolutions, the role of print culture was central to expand and to consolidate this transformation.

  • Keywords:
  • Martyrs,
  • pain,
  • secularization thesis,
  • sacralization of politics,
  • politization of religion,
+ Show More

Natalia Núñez Bargueño

KU Leuven, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0001-6245-6669

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  • Publication Year: 2026
  • Pages: 111-134
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2026
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Bearing witness to pain. The politics of martyrdom in late modernity

Authors

Natalia Núñez Bargueño

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0.09

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Pain fragments

Book Subtitle

Practising Catholicism in the 19th and 20th centuries

Editors

Tine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi, Kristof Smeyers, Maria Heidegger

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

184

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0

ISBN Print

979-12-215-1071-3

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-1072-0

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-1073-7

Series Title

Fragmentaria. Studi di storia culturale e antropologia religiosa

Series ISSN

2975-1217

Series E-ISSN

2975-1225

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