Art History Professors Stephanie Leone & Alison Fleming Co-Publish Chapter on the Chapel of Francis Xavier in Rome

Professors Stephanie Leone and Alison C. Fleming (Winston-Salem State University) have co-published the chapter, “The Arm Relic as Index of the Body: The Chapel of Francis Xavier in the Gesù,” in Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome: Form, Function, Meaning, eds. C. Franceschini, S.F. Ostrow, P. Tosini (Milan: Officina Libraria, 2020). Entombed in 1554 in Goa, India, where he had been a missionary, Francis Xavier’s body was incorruptible and worked miracles as proof of his sanctity. In 1614, Xavier’s arm was amputated and sent to the Church of Il Gesù in Rome to extend his cult to the principal church of the Society of Jesus. From 1672-1684, the Chapel of Francis Xavier was created for the display of the precious relic. In this chapter, Leone and Fleming present their unique analysis of the function and meaning of the chapel as an integrated spatial environment, comprising the relic, reliquary, altarpiece, fresco paintings, metalwork, architecture, and polychrome stone. They propose that the chapel can only be understood through the analysis of the individual components in relationship to one another and the whole. Centered on the arm relic, the chapel persuasively verifies and celebrates the life, sanctity, and legacy of Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits.