The Anna Selbdritt in late medieval Germany : meaning and function of religious image

Anna Selbdritt

The Anna Selbdritt in late medieval Germany : meaning and function of religious image Virginia Nixon Doctor of Philosophy, Concordia University, School of Graduate Studies, Montreal, Canada (1997) Abstract In the decades between 1480 and 1520 the production of images of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child increased in Germany and the Netherlands in […]

The Chaste Erotics of Marie d’Oignies and Jacques de Vitry

Clerical Sexuality

The Chaste Erotics of Marie d’Oignies and Jacques de Vitry Jennifer Brown (Marymount Manhattan College) Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 19, No. 1, January (2010) Abstract IN JACQUES DE VITRY’S THIRTEENTH-CENTURY vita of Marie d’Oignies, the hagiographer, or author of a sacred biography, implicates himself in his knowledge of a priest’s surprising reaction […]

The Miracles of Saints Cosmas and Damian: Characteristics of Dream Healing

The Healing of Justinian by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian - by Fra Angelico

Cosmas and Damian were trained physicians, already famous during their lives, but their great career as healers started after they suffered martyrdom in 287 or 297.

To Take Care of the Monks, Take Care of Christina: Christina of Markyate and the Medieval Spiritual/Material Market

ChristinaMarkyatePhoto

In this essay I will delineate two of these emphases: (1) Christina’s powerful interaction with boundaries and the spaces they demarcate, and (2) the material/spiritual economy that develops between Christina and Geoffrey, the Abbot of the St. Albans Monastery. I will then argue that these emphases together form a message that might have been aimed at The Life’s monastic (and to some extent aristocratic) audience, perhaps even the abbots who succeeded Geoffrey.

Impregnable friendship : locating desire in the middle English ‘Amis and Amiloun’

amisamiloun

Scholarship on Amis and Amiloun has generally been divided into two critical schools. The majority of critics have read the work as an exemplar of perfect friendship, overlooking (or ignoring) any trace of homoeroticism, citing the possibility itself as anachronistic, or explaining away its presence by offering historical or theoretical justification for intimacy among medieval men.

Nessie: Stories of the Scottish Highlands from the Vita Columbae

lochness monster - fake photo from the 1930s

The first story that influenced my decision to use this manuscript was Columba’s encounter with the Loch Ness Monster. It caught my attention that a common folk tale that everyone knows of today was already in existence in the 690s AD.

Women and Englishness: Anglo-Saxon Female Saints in the South English Legendary

Saint Æthelthryth of Ely from the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, illuminated manuscript in the British Library

\This article attempts to redress this balance, by focusing on one of the early collections of saints’ lives found in Middle English, the South English Legendary.

Representations of English Women and their Pilgrimages in Twelfth-Century Miracle Collections

Detail of a miniature of a monk meeting two women riding on the back of another woman.  Harley 4399 f.54 - British Library

Drawing on a survey of sixteen miracle collections compiled in twelfth-century England, the study examines the representation of women as pilgrims, and demonstrates that many modern assumptions about female travel in the Middle Ages are not consistent with the miracle accounts.

Miraculous Healings of Paralysis: A Preliminary Study on Sources

Saint Bernardino of Siena

The aim of the present paper has been to explore the medieval evidence on miraculous healings of paralysis and to confront it with modern medical knowledge.

The Privileging of Visio over Vox in the Mystical Experiences of Hildegard of Bingen and Joan of Arc

Illumination from the Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her scribe and secretary

Even
 though
 medieval
 women
 mystics
 have
 enjoyed
 increased
 attention
 in
 recent
 scholarly
 discussion,
 a
 topic
 that
 still
 has
 not
 been
 tackled
 is
 the
 possible
 difference
 between
 seeing
 a
 vision
 and
 hearing
 a
 voice
 during
 a
 mystical
 experience


The Still Lives of Medieval Objects

The Still Lives of Medieval Objects

Discussions of the relationship between time and medieval artworks often hinge on examinations of use and reception: how has the meaning of this object changed over time?

Magic in English Thirteenth-Century Miracle Collections

The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period

This contribution focuses on miracle collections as a source for medieval magic for three reasons. The first is the very closeness of magic and miracles, for both seek to procure results which transcend nature, and to do this through the medium of a human practitioner.

“Becoming Mary of the Gael”

St. Brigit

This paper focused on the comparison of St. Brigit and the Virgin Mary in early Irish texts.

Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland

Saint Margaret Queen of Scotland

By all accounts, Margaret was a beautiful, blond Saxon princess in her twenties who was educated and had learned the art of being a royal wife from Edward’s Queen Edith.

Relics and Reliquaries in the Vita Germani Auctore Constantio : the Capsula

cross reliquary

It is the sporadic presence of the term capsula in the Vita Germani, and in other texts contemporary to it, which indicates its importance in the history of Christian costume as described by Constantius. In what follows, I shall demonstrate through literary comparisons and historical linguistics how such an affirmation is not, in fact, a contradiction at all.

Project on the medieval saints in Wales receives £775 000 in funding

Stained glass window ( 1934 ) showing Saint David - photo by Wolfgang Sauber

A project to better understand the history of medieval saints in Wales and created new online resources has been award more than three-quarters of a million points by The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The History of Saint Patrick – a Short Story

History of St. Patrick

St. Patrick was born, not in Ireland, but in Britian around AD 387. Well, actually, he wasn’t called St. Patrick at the time, or even Patrick, but was referred to as Maewyn Succat.

Abelard’s Legacy: Why Theology is not Faith Seeking Understanding

abelard

In this paper I will challenge the common definition of the theological task as faith seeking understanding, where the faith of a tradition commandeers the critical enquiry of the theologian.

The Legend of the Purgatory of Saint Patrick: From Ireland to Dante and Beyond

St. Patrick's Purgatory - Station Island in Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland.

“Yes by Saint Patrick …. Touching this vision here It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you” (Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5)

Reconsidering the Health Care Provider: Lessons from Medieval Miracle Accounts

Reconsidering the Health Care Provider: Lessons from Medieval Miracle Accounts

Using medieval canonization inquests, Archambeau will try to answer the seemingly simple question: What did people do when they were sick?

Narratives of the saintly body in Anglo-Saxon England

Tower of Babel - Ælfric of Eynsham

This dissertation investigates narratives of the saintly body in Anglo-Saxon England. Specifically, it examines the ways in which the bodies of holy men and women were constructed through such narratives and read in local appropriations of emblematic vitae and passiones.

The Vínland sagas as propaganda for the Christian Church

Vinland_Map

Over the last two centuries, the Vínland Sagas have become some of the most discussed of Medieval Nordic documents. There are arguments about every aspect of the sagas: What the name Vínland means, if Vínland existed, where it would have been geographically, and how much of their content is historically accurate.

The Welsh Female Saint: Patterns within a Social Framework

Brigit of Kildare

Historia Divae Monacellae, the Latin Life of Melangell is also comparatively late in composition, with the earliest manuscript being from the 16th century, but possibly drawing on earlier written sources.3 When we look at the availability of written texts relating to male saints the difference in source material is immediately evident.

The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories

Sigebert I - Patron of Gregory of Tours

In northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world.

From Anglorum basileus to Norman Saint: The Transformation of Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor - Bayeux Tapestry

In the following pages I explore the transformation of the visual and textual expression of Edward’s rule (1043-66) through the reign of Henry II (1154-89).

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