In our October seminar, Dr Jessica Hughes will discuss her new book, Our Lady of Pompeii: Ruins, Religion, and Memory (OUP, 2026). The book tells the story of the Catholic shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii, which was built in the 1870s beside the ruins of ancient Pompeii.
Jessica will give an overview of the book, which focuses on the relationship between the shrine and the neighbouring archaeological site (the ‘Two Pompeiis’). She will discuss how the project has developed since her 2023 seminar for the Centre for Marian Studies, and summarise how, over the course of the later nineteenth century, ancient Pompeii gradually became part of Catholic Pompeii’s identity, providing inspiration for the many artists, writers, and pilgrims who were drawn to the shrine and the miracle-working image of Our Lady housed there. More broadly, Jessica will reflect on the challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary work of this kind, and will share some of her ideas for follow-on research on the shrine and its founder, St Bartolo Longo, who was canonised by Pope Leo XIV in October 2025.
Our guest speaker
Dr Jessica Hughes is Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies at The Open University. She read Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and did her MA and PhD in Greek and Roman Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She has been working at The Open University since 2008. Most of Jessica’s recent research has focused on the changing religious landscape of the southern Italian region of Campania, and especially the area around Vesuvius. Her previous publications include a monograph on Votive Body Parts in Greek and Roman Religion (CUP 2017) and a themed edited issue of the Open Arts Journal on Material Religion in Pompeii (2021). She is currently working with Crispin Paine on the Gods' Collections project.
Register
If you'd like to attend this presentation, please register by sending an email to Catherine O’Brien at the following address: info@marianstudies.ac.uk.
You’ll receive the free Zoom link the day before the seminar.
