Le testimonianze visive dei "nuovi" santi: il caso dei santi scienziati

In Catholic tradition, certain categories of saints play a pivotal role in the production of visual and audio-visual testimonies which convey specific values and models of behavior. This paper opens with some general reflections about the relationship between saints and the photographic enunciation, and then looks into the particular role of a category of saints of recent canonization, namely scientists and physicians. The audio-visual testimonies of these saints, who are often important public characters and affirmed international scholars, have gained a strategic importance since the 20th century, when their “face” became a way to disseminate a Catholic interpretation of science in harmony with faith. While saints and religious characters are growingly represented with features that overcome the traditional sacred iconography and recall the codes of secular contemporary communication, an opposite tendency is detectable as well, since figures of lay medical workers and scientists are quite often represented with traditional hagiographic features.