The Apostle of the Impossible: Affectivity, Embodiment, and Religious Experience in the Visit of the Relics of Saint Jude Thaddeus to Mexico

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

[PDF]

The Apostle of the Impossible: Affectivity, Embodiment, and Religious Experience in the Visit of the Relics of Saint Jude Thaddeus to Mexico

Marisol Lopez-Menendez

ABSTRACT:

A small portion of the arm of Saint Jude Thaddeus has visited Mexico for the first time. The “apostle of the impossible” arrived on July 29, 2024, and began a tour of several states in the central and southern parts of the country. The proposed chapter aims at analyzing some of the ways in which believers apprehended the saint’s corporeality in a specific strand of religiosity deeply rooted in Catholicism, which links the religious experience with Christian materiality.
Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which digital technology mediates the faithful’s apprehension of the saint’s corporeality, by looking at photographs taken by them in the context of the tour.

Keywords: Affects; Embodiment; Relics; Mexico; Catholicism