Great article. It's funny to me that, after decades of presumably a decently well-read academic life, I'm finally able to put into context the actual meaning of "St. Elmo's Fire."

I had only been tangentially aware of the pop culture references in music (e.g. Brian Eno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKch8dZ61w) and film (I have not seen the film with Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Demi Moore, although it looks interesting, e.g. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090060/)

Here's more reading on the actual Erasmus of Formia, or St. Elmo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_of_Formia