The Social Role of Saints’ Processions in 15th Century Cracow

The concept of „sacred geography” refers not only to the spatial depiction of the sacrum – it also embodies the phenomenon of celebrating the cohesion of Heaven and Earth in accurately defined spaces. Throughout this ideological construct some historical narratives can be better understood, for example Jan Długosz’s story (15th c.) about vision of a townswoman Weronika. She was dreaming of a miraculous procession of saints Adalbert and Florian heading the Krakowian march to the Wawel cathedral in order to visit saints Stanislaus and Wenceslas – „their famous fathers and fellow citizens”. These four patron saints were considered as a group of patron saints of the Polish Kingdom. The sense of patronage in Długosz’s tale has been illustrated by the words of Adalbert, who accuses Poles of oppressing the poor, dangers on the routes and simony. The same saints participated in the processional ritual that unites the community of the capital city of Krakow and determined the actual points of the sacred’s and profane’s convergence. A comprehensive view of the topographic location of the objects associated with the state patronage, their hagio-toponymy and the processional rite within these spaces allows to understand the functioning of the sacred geography of medieval Krakow.