Holy Cross Religion Scholar Published in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008

WORCESTER, Mass. – The essay, “The Saint of Worcester: Why Pilgrims Come to See Audrey Santo” by Mathew N. Schmalz, associate professor of religious studies and director of the College Honors Program at the College of the Holy Cross, has been included in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008 (Houghton Mifflin Books).  This year’s edition of the prestigious series is edited by Philip Zaleski and includes an introduction by former President Jimmy Carter.

Schmalz’s “The Saint of Worcester” reflects upon the Catholic sacramental imagination and focuses on the experience of “John,” a recovering schizophrenic who regularly visited Audrey Santo, a Worcester, Mass. native. “Little Audrey,” as she was often called, was rendered mute and paralyzed after an accident in 1987 and later became the subject of widespread media attention after reports circulated about supernatural phenomena occurring  in her presence.  Until Audrey’s death in 2007, the Santo home in Worcester home was a place for pilgrimage for a number of devotees like John who sought healing from their afflictions. Against this background, Schmalz’s piece considers the spiritual implications of suffering and mental illness, while also examining the appeal of the Audrey Santo phenomenon. Schmalz concludes by observing that “the exotic and the familiar, not to mention the holy, are often the same thing refracted differently through the prism of our expectations and experience. The power of the Catholic sacramental imagination is that it allows us to see all three at the same time.”

Schmalz specializes in Catholicism, new religious movements, and religion and politics in India and Pakistan. A member of the faculty since 1998, Schmalz earned his B.A. from Amherst College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from The Divinity School at the University of Chicago.

Schmalz’s work has appeared in numerous academic journals, anthologies, and encyclopedias.  He has also published a wide range of op-eds in magazines and newspapers including The National Catholic Reporter; Commonweal, and On Faith, a Web site on religion produced jointly by The Washington Post and Newsweek.

Schmalz is on the board of directors for the Society for Hindu/Christian Studies, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Christian Higher Education.

He lives with his family in Paxton, Mass.