The invention of saintliness

The study of saints and saintliness has enjoyed an increase in scholarly interest over the past decades.

Historians have gained new insight into the rise and function of holy men and women, holy sites and holy objects, thanks to new approaches borrowed from other disciplines.

Officially recognised saints are found in heaven, but are made on earth.

This volume discusses, from an historical and literary angle, the ways in which sanctification and the inscription of saintliness take place.

Going beyond the traditional categories of canonization, cult, liturgical veneration and hagiographical lives, the work raises fundamental issues concerning definitions if saints and saintliness in a period before the concept was crystallized in canon law.

As well as discussing sources and methodology, contributions cover contextual issues, including relics and veneration, life and the afterlife, and examinations of specific sources and texts.

Subjects raised include the idea of hagiography as intimate biography, perceptions of holiness in writings by and about female mystics, and bodily aspects of the Franciscan search for evangelical perfection. Essential reading for those interested in medieval religion, this will also prove more generally valuable for scholars of the history of religion, medieval historians, and those studying medieval literature.