Italy’s government made Saint Francis’s feast a national holiday and cast him as an icon of Italian identity, extending a long tradition of political actors repackaging religious figures to unify constituencies. From post‑unification monarchs to fascists and now Meloni, Francis is repeatedly reframed to reconcile Church, language, and nation, even if the theology doesn’t fit the politics.
— It shows how states instrumentalize religious symbols as soft power for nation‑building, revealing the cultural mechanics behind contemporary nationalist projects.
Sam Kahn
2026.01.16
72% relevant
Both pieces describe state actors repackaging cultural/religious symbols to create or reinforce a national identity (the article: DHS and DOL Instagram posts invoking 'heritage' and Manifest Destiny imagery; the existing idea: Italy making Saint Francis a national symbol). The mechanism—official cultural messaging used to bind a polity—is the shared claim.
Aeon Video
2026.01.14
44% relevant
While that existing idea focuses on how political actors repurpose religious symbols, the connection is the same mechanism: cultural productions (here an animated short) are used to shape collective identity and historical narrative—this film is an example of cultural media shaping national memory about Stalinist crimes and thus influences identity narratives and political memory work.
Tyler Cowen
2026.01.08
65% relevant
Both items show how cultural or religious figures and works are repackaged by political actors to craft or reinforce national identity. Cowen’s piece notes Resurrection recasts the 20th century from a Straussian Chinese viewpoint and mixes mythic/religious motifs—this is the same mechanism (art as identity instrument) described in the existing idea about states repackaging Saint Francis.
κρῠπτός
2026.01.07
55% relevant
Both the sermon and the existing idea treat religious symbolism and figures as resources for political identity: the sermon argues that the 'mystery of Christ' constitutes the formative narrative and polity for Christian political thought, which parallels the mapped idea that religious figures and rituals are repurposed to construct civic identity (actor in article: Paul/Ephesians and the preacher's claim that the church is a reconstituted people).
2026.01.05
40% relevant
Wagner’s history shows how religious symbols and prophetic expectations (here: the restoration of Israel) are mobilized politically, which parallels the existing idea that religious figures and narratives are repackaged by political actors to build or sustain national identity.
Rod Dreher
2026.01.03
78% relevant
The article invokes St. Columba and frames the monastery's return to Iona as a prophetic and identity‑laden event; this directly connects to the existing idea that saints and religious symbols are repurposed by political or cultural actors to shape national or regional identity (here, Orthodox presence on a canonical Scottish island).
Aris Roussinos
2026.01.03
85% relevant
Both pieces describe how cultural and religious symbols are repackaged into political resources that unify constituencies; the article argues Excalibur deliberately reworks Arthurian myth to re‑attach Britain to a spiritual/political unity in a crisis moment, matching the prior idea that states and elites use sacred figures and myths to construct national identity.
Jason Ross
2025.12.30
62% relevant
Like the existing idea about political actors repackaging religious saints, the review describes Douglass being repurposed as an exemplary civic figure whose biography and rhetoric are used to legitimate contemporary multicultural republican commitments — a parallel example of turning a historical figure into a national unifying symbol.
Rod Dreher
2025.12.02
52% relevant
While Dreher’s post is not about canonized saints, its argument that religious motifs are being used in party identity parallels the idea that states and political movements repurpose religious figures and symbols to build national or party unity.
Gabriel Rossman
2025.12.01
45% relevant
Both pieces trace how historical religious figures are repeatedly repurposed by successive cultural actors; the review’s Black Annis/Agnes genealogy shows the same mechanism (saint → demon → goddess → witch) that the existing idea highlights when states or movements rebrand religious symbols for political or identity uses.
Rod Dreher
2025.12.01
60% relevant
Wiman’s discussion of St. Joseph of Cupertino as a phenomenon shaped by communal belief directly echoes the existing idea that religious figures and collective belief can be repackaged or instrumentalized by political actors; Dreher republishing the essay brings the same example (levitation witnessed by crowds) back into contemporary cultural discourse about how belief constructs reality.
Michael Ledger-Lomas
2025.10.07
55% relevant
The article shows Christian symbols and quasi‑canonization being used to unify a political identity: Charlie Kirk is eulogized in saint‑like terms by prominent Catholics (Cardinal Dolan, Bishop Barron) and venerated across denominations; Crusader crosses at Tommy Robinson’s rally function as shared sacred identity markers—parallel to political actors instrumentalizing saints to reinforce national or civilizational cohesion.
Andrea Valentino
2025.10.03
100% relevant
Meloni’s 4 October national holiday for Saint Francis, framed as defending 'Italian identity,' alongside cuts to English in documents and bans on lab‑grown meat.