Looking for Medieval Rome
“The medieval city? Ha! Bulldozed—it doesn’t exist.”
‘Prussians as Bees, Prussians as Dogs’: Metaphors and the Depiction of Pagan Society in the Early Hagiography of St. Adalbert of Prague
This article explores a single such case, that of the depiction of Old Prussians in the early cluster of vitae of St. Adalbert of Prague (+997).
You Only Die Twice? Abbots between Community and Empire: The Cases of Martin of Tours and Benedict of Aniane
Th is article compares the deaths of two abbots as told by contemporary observers
NEW! The Medieval Magazine, No. 111: HAGIOGRAPHY
In this issue, we look at hagiography, the medieval cult of saints, alchemy, visit Prague and visit del Escorial, Spain.
Creating Holy People and Places on the Periphery
Holy people have been venerated in various forms by all religions and ideologies throughout history. Christianity is no exception with the development of the cults of saints beginning shortly after its formation.
Reformist Hagiography: The Life of St Roding of Beaulieu and the Struggle for Power in Early Eleventh-Century Lotharingia
This paper explores an example of ‘reformist’ hagiographic production in early eleventh-century Lotharingia by focusing on the Life of St Roding of Beaulieu, a small monastery in the diocese of Verdun.
Sickness, Disability, and Miracle Cures: Hagiography in England, c. 700 – c. 1200
By analysing a selection of miracle-cure narratives from the main period of miracle writing in England, from the age of Bede to the late twelfth century, this project considers the social significance of such stories.
The Miracle of the Unspilled Beer
Was not spilling beer important enough to be considered a miracle? For one seventh-century writer it was!
Exposing Virginal Bodies in Early Norman England
Although they reached toward the eternal, the saints and their biographers easily became entangled in worldly affairs, and in colonial contexts such as those of Norman England the saints could become pawns in monumental cultural, social, and political struggles.
Bringing Out the Saints: Journeys of Relics in Tenth to Twelfth Century Northern France and Flanders
This dissertation examines the practice of taking relics on out-and-back journeys to explore the consequences of temporarily removing these objects from the churches in which they were housed and displayed.
Harry Potter and the Legends of Saints
Along with its other generic borrowings, the Harry Potter series uses tropes and plot structures from medieval hagiography. Rowling most significantly uses hagiographical plot structures during the confrontations between Harry and Voldemort and the confrontation between Neville and Voldemort.
700-year-old saint myth has been proven (almost) true
Scientists confirm that the age and content of an old sack is in accordance with a medieval myth about Saint Francis of Assisi.
A Dynasty of Saints
By all accounts, St. Æthelthryth was married twice and remained a virgin. During her life she was a princess of East Anglia, queen of Northumbria, and finally abbess and founder of the monastery at Ely.
Isabel of Aragon (d. 1336): Model Queen or Model Saint?
This study of Isabel of Aragon (c. 1270–1336), wife of King Dinis of Portugal (1279–1325), who was venerated as a saint from shortly after her death, aims to explore the relationship between Isabel’s queenship and her sainthood.
The Medieval Magazine: (Volume 3, Issue 6)
In this issue: Predicting the Year 1336 – New feature! Women in History: An in Depth Look at Lucrezia Borgia, Top 10 Things to Do in Rome, Saints, Martyrs, and Relics.
Irish and British saints of the early medieval period
Irish saints tend to be studied en masse.
Marriage and Sanctity in the Lives of Late Medieval Married Saints
How did the saint come to marry? How are sexual relations portrayed in saints’ lives? How did the saint live after the death of or separation from a spouse?
Heavenly Healing or Failure of Faith? Partial Cures in Later Medieval Canonization Processes
When thinking of miracles as source material for the conceptions and everyday life of the laity, miracles with remaining symptoms provide an interesting sub-type of a healing miracle.
The Life of Saint Euphrosyne of Połack
Saint Euphrosyne (c. 1105-1167) was the granddaughter of the famous prince of Polack, Usiaslau (Vseslav) whose long reign (1044-1101) and many exploits – in particular his determined struggle against Kiev – made such an impression on his contemporaries that they refused to believe him to be an ordinary mortal
VIDEO: Female Sufis in the Medieval Period
Dr. Lloyd Ridgeon talks about the role of Sufi women in the medieval period. Ridgeone examines positive and negative portrayals of Sufi women in a wide range of texts.
Creating a crusader saint: Canute Lavard and others of that ilk
In the Middle Ages, saints were invoked before great, decisive battles, they sometimes participated directly themselves, and they did so more and more often after the eleventh and especially the twelfth century.
The Seafarers’ Saint: Medieval Representations of St Nicholas in the North Sea Area
The cult of St Nicholas was spread in Scandinavia in the last decades of the 11th and the first decades of the 12th centuries. Because the medieval cult of saints was not limited to the liturgy of the saints themselves, but was a wider social phenomenon.
Robot Saints in the Middle Ages
While it’s easy to think of the Middle Ages as a backward time in which everyone struggled with the most basic things, medieval people were no strangers to some pretty cool technology, including robots.
The ‘Miracle of Childbirth’: The Portrayal of Parturient Women in Medieval Miracle Narratives
This paper explores how tales of difficult births found in medieval miracle narratives can contribute to our understanding of the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in twelfth-century England.
