On March 28, Patrick Lally Michelson delivered the keynote address to IU’s Undergraduate Religious Studies Association. His talk, titled “Dead Monks Don’t Die,” explored the afterlives of two monks who (possibly) died in battle in 1380, only to be resurrected by the Russian Church, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and today’s Russian Federation. These monks were reborn as Orthodox icons, modern art, war propaganda, postage stamps, a children’s film, a television episode, an athletic club, a military detachment, a laser system, and three different times as warships—just some of the examples of how dead monks don’t die.
The College of Arts