Corpo santo, potere urbano e propaganda civica: Sant’Ercolano nella Perugia comunale

This article analyzes the evolution of Saint Ercolano within the formation of the civic and political identity of the Commune of Perugia between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The research follows two complementary lines of inquiry: the hagiographic tradition and the ideological and propagandistic uses of the saint in the development of the Commune of the Popolo. It reconstructs the saint’s passion, the circulation of his miracles, and the translations of his relics, showing how his thaumaturgic virtus consolidated popular devotion while legitimizing episcopal authority. The second part shows how the Commune of the Popolo appropriated the figure of the defensor civitatis for political purposes. Saint Ercolano thus became a pivot of institutional legitimacy: his image appeared in public architecture, his feast structured rituals of subjection in the contado, and his invocation accompanied crucial moments of civic life, from factional conflicts to resistance against papal hegemony.