The Huntsman’s Redemption
Given the longstanding vigour of criticisms of participation in the hunt in the 13th century, any saint’s life, which opened with a hunting scene, would have immediately signalled to readers or listeners that the unfolding story would reveal a deeper character flaw.
A Medieval Miracle: The Beer Did Not Spill
Was preventing beer spillage significant enough to be deemed a miracle? Surprisingly, for one seventh-century writer, it was!
Mary of Egypt with Sonia Velazquez
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Sonia Velázquez about St. Mary of Egypt, why she caught the medieval imagination, and how her beauty, age, and holiness spoke to generations of artists and the faithful.
Lost Medieval Saint rediscovered in English manuscript
A previously overlooked entry in a 15th-century manuscript has been uncovered, providing vital new evidence that one of medieval England’s most influential figures was, contrary to belief, a saint.
Dis/ability and Byzantine Hagiography
I will discuss first the differences in the narrative teatments of disability by various hagiographers, and their attempts at explaining its source or reason depending on their religious and moral agendas.
The Medieval Cult of Mary’s Hair
A look at one of the most important relics of the Middle Ages: the hair of the Virgin Mary.
Saints and Feasts of the Holiday Season
In the Middle Ages, December meant a celebration of jolly old St. Nicholas along with a host of other sainted figures and important moments in the Christian story. This week, Danièle presents a quick guide to medieval holiday saints and feasts.
Gender, Transgender and the Middle Ages with Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt
In the past few years, trans and genderqueer issues have come to the forefront both in society and in the way scholars are approaching medieval studies. But what do these terms mean? And how do we apply them responsibly to the past? This week, Danièle speaks with Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt about trans and genderqueer scholarship in medieval studies.
San Clemente: Man, Legend, Church
By Chris Petitt San Clemente is one of the Roman tituli, the twenty-some late antique churches that continue to animate the modern landscape of…
St Olaf: An International Norwegian Saint
Seven papers from the Dublin Festival of History, International Viking Seminar 2023
How Many Medieval Saints Are There?
Even a quick glance at medieval history will reveal that there are a lot of saints from the Middle Ages. How many are there? The short answer is that we don’t know exactly and that the number is still growing.
New Medieval Books: The Life of Saint Enda, Abbot of Aran
This book offers an English translation of a medieval account of Saint Enda of Aran, a significant figure in early Irish Christianity.
The Mighty Cabbage Hurling Saint
What would you call a man who crosses a river by walking on water to throw a cabbage head at his opponent? A fool, for sure, but no ordinary fool. He is a fool of God.
Saint Colette with Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski
Not every saint gets a contemporary biography, let alone two, but fifteenth-century French saint Colette is among them. This week, Danièle speaks with…
A Beginner’s Guide to Medieval Saints
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle (with the help of her new puppy) introduces some of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, along with their iconography, so you can spot them in medieval art.
New Medieval Books: The Life and Miracles of Saint Godric, Hermit of Finchale
A new addition to the Oxford Medieval Texts series, The Life and Miracles of Saint Godric, Hermit of Finchale is a twelfth-century hagiographic account of a hermit who lived in northern England.
Kings of the Angles and Kings of the English: Royal Saints in the Prayer Book Calendar
What I’m going to do is first to give an introduction to the royal saints who appear in the Calendar of the Prayer Book to talk about their lives and the history of their veneration, and then to think about what their inclusion in that calendar can tell us about the intertwined history of the English monarchy and the English church.
The Antipope Who Became a Saint: Forgery, Heresy, and the Power of Manuscripts
By Riccardo Macchioro In today’s world, people are pretty much accustomed to the concepts of “fake news” and “propaganda” (albeit, we might say,…
Promoting your patron saint, or How to win favor and influence the powerful
Medieval monasteries cared about the way in which they presented themselves to the world no less than todays’ celebrities and businesses do.
Saint Anne: Grandmother to the Medieval World
The story of how the grandmother of Jesus became an important figure in medieval Christianity.
St. Francis, Giotto and Geology
St. Francis of Assisi (c.1181-1226) and Giotto (c.1270-1337), would change the history of religion, art and ecology. Some 800 years later, geologists would examine the limestone used to construct the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi and would discover the secret behind the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The Road to Sainthood
In the Middle Ages, making it to Sainthood was a tedious process. Though, being murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral was a good starting point.
Cyril, Methodios, and the conversion of the Slavs, with Mirela Ivanova
Despite the huge importance attributed to these men and their activities in modern scholarship, national narratives, and Slavic Orthodox identity, our knowledge about them rests largely on two texts whose interests are quite different from our own. What do we really know about them?
Cologne’s Eleven Thousand Virgins and Hildegard of Bingen: Saint Ursula’s Martyrdom in Legend and Song
In the Middle Ages, the legend of Saint Ursula and her extraordinarily courageous retinue of eleven thousand virgins was, for many writers and artists, a wellspring of inspiration.