Paper Short Abstract:

This paper will examine the recent revival of Catholic masses at Late Antique archaeological sites in Slovenia, which hosted Christian sacred spaces but remained unused for nearly 1,500 years. These reactivations raise questions about ritual revival, cultural memory, and the construction of sacredness. I will explore the cultural and religious motivations behind these revivals, focusing on how contemporary communities, the Church, and heritage discourses reinterpret sacred continuity and intersect with archaeological heritage. These processes can be understood as “unwriting” abandonment and “rewriting” the sacred through new spiritual, cultural, and communal meanings.

Paper Abstract:

This contribution will explore the reactivation of some Slovenian archaeological sites dating into Late Antiquity, a time when Christianity was already established in these areas, and that had Christian sacred places for worship. After not being used as sacred places for nearly 1.500 years these sites have recently (occasionally) begun hosting Catholic masses. This opens questions about the processes of ritual revival, cultural memory and sacredness of place. I am interested in topics of cultural and religious motivations behind these revivals; how contemporary communities, the Church and heritage discourses understand and construct the concept of sacredness and sacred continuity; and the intersection between archaeological heritage and modern ritual practices.

In this sense such revivals can be seen as processes of “unwriting” and “rewriting” the sacred by changing the narrative of abandonment and inscribing new meanings routed in spiritual, cultural and communal renewal.