Who Owned Augustine’s Bones? The Hermits of St. Augustine
Today we will look at the relics of St. Augustine and the tug-of-war that broke out over them in the fourteenth century.
Aiming for Peace and Responding to Crisis: Movement and the Saints in Eleventh-Century Southern French Miracle Collections
In the miracle texts of Saints Vivien at Figeac, Privat at Mende, and Enimie at Sainte-Enimie, all written in the eleventh century in the south of France, movements abound in a flurry of danger and excitement in reference to their relics.
Project breathing new life into forgotten medieval chants
Trinity College Dublin is involved in an ambitious international cultural heritage project which is bringing back to life forgotten medieval chants and prayers associated with Irish saints such as St Patrick, St Brigit and St Colmcille.
Domestic violence against women as a reason to sanctification in Byzantine hagiography
The lives of Matrona of Perge, Mary the Younger and Thomaïs of Lesbos are rare examples of how domestic violence against women could be also interpreted as a reason to sanctify the woman suffered abuses of this sort.
Etheldreda: Queen, Abbess, Saint
Saint Etheldreda / Ӕthelthryth / Audrey (636 -679 AD) was an East-Anglian princess who became the Queen of Northumbria and later the founder and abbess of a monastery at Ely in Cambridgeshire.
How to be a Holy Man and a Pragmatist: The story of Hybald
Any type of leader will often have to balance their convictions with pragmatism. For a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon abbot, perhaps there could be a way to display both.
Saint Birgitta of Sweden: paving the way for female writers and philosophers
The Legacy of Birgitta of Sweden. Women, Politics, and Reform in Renaissance Italy project tracks the impact of the 14th century mystic and founder of the Bridgettines on later generations.
The child by the seaside: a medieval story about Saint Augustine
While Augustine was working on his book On the Trinity, he was walking by the seaside one day, meditating on the difficult problem of how God could be three Persons at once. He came upon a little child.
Relics and Reliquaries: A Matter of Life and Death
A not unusual modern response to reliquaries is disgust–after all they often contain bones. To understand their presence, even their glorification, it must be admitted that the bones are not the ordinary subject of horror, rather as the bones of the blessed
How much do you know about St George?
He killed the dragon and is patron saint of England and more than 20 other countries, but what else is there to know about St George?
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.
