ABOUT BOOK

The spread of Catholicism among the local Christian population in the ~Syro-Palestinian region has attracted the attention of many scholars. Previous ~research has described how missionaries’ work was facilitated by the ~patronage of local notables, by the establishment of personal ties with locals, ~and more generally by a wide range of daily interactions, such as providing ~medical assistance. 1 In this framework, academic attention has mostly ~focused on the cities, consistent with the fact that missions were far more ~numerous in urban areas. An important exception is a pioneering work by ~Bernard Heyberger. This early study reconstructs how, departing from their ~houses in cities such as Sayda and Tripoli, Jesuits and Capuchins visited ~rural villages in Galilee and Lebanon. Inspired by the model of rural missions ~developed in Europe during the Catholic Reformation, their activities ~hinged on confession and preaching. In line with the regional framework, ~missionaries also carefully built ties with locals and offered their medical ~competencies, which greatly helped their cause. 2 Although the importance ~of interactions with the locals in the spread of Catholicism in the Middle ~East has been widely acknowledged, many questions about the nature of ~these interactions still remain unanswered: How did the administrative and ~economic system that characterized rural and semi-rural spaces influence ~missionaries’ interactions with the surrounding areas? What was the relationship ~between missionaries’ entanglement with local society and their ~evangelizing activities? And, finally, to what extent did these interactions ~turn the missionaries into “localized” protagonists?