This book explores the cultural conditions that led to the emergence and proliferation of Saint
Hermenegildo as a stage character in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It considers how
this saint became a theatrical trope enabling the Society of Jesus to address religious and
secular concerns of the post-Tridentine Church and to discuss political issues such as the
supremacy of the pope over the monarch and the legitimacy of regicide. The book goes on to
explain how the Hermenegildo narrative developed outside of Jesuit colleges through works by
professional dramatist Lope de Vega and Mexican nun Juana Inés de la Cruz. Stefano Muneroni
takes a global approach to the staging of Hermenegildo tracing the character's journey from
Europe to the Americas from male to female authors and from a sacrificial to a sacramental
paradigm where the emphasis shifts from bloodletting to spiritual salvation. Given its
interdisciplinary approach this book is geared toward scholarsand students of theatre history
religion and drama early modern theology cultural studies romance languages and literature
and the history of the Society of Jesus..
