Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives hero image.
Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives

This Special Collection focuses on the composition of saints' lives in medieval literature. Alongside allowing their authors to explore and express their faith, the writing of saints' lives provided opportunities to explore subjects such as the foundation myths of religious communities, travel and exploration, and gender and sexuality. Saints' lives were also an ideal medium for reaching a wide variety of audiences. Not only were these texts suitable for consumption in a range of situations ranging from public performance to private contemplative reading, but they also facilitated communication between religious and lay communities, which would not have been possible through other means.

The collection aims to bring the spotlight onto saints' lives as an exciting and innovative narrative medium and a means of communication in the Middle Ages. Articles have been invited to reflect upon the self-fashioning of the religious communities that produced saints' lives, as well as the relationship between audience and narrator constructed in texts in all periods of the Middle Ages and in all medieval literary languages.

Edited by: Katharine Handel (University of York)

Featured image by Peter Trimming under a CC BY license


Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives

Marie of Oignies, of Nivelles, or of Villers: The Multiple Textual Identities of a 13th-Century Holy Woman
Marie of Oignies, of Nivelles, or of Villers: The Multiple Textual Identities of a 13th-Century Holy Woman

Alicia Spencer-Hall

2017-05-15 Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 2017 • 11

Also a part of:

Special Collection: Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives

Telling the Story: Reshaping Saint Christopher for an Anglo-Saxon Lay Audience
Telling the Story: Reshaping Saint Christopher for an Anglo-Saxon Lay Audience

Simon C. Thomson

2018-10-16 Volume 4 • Issue 2 • 2018 • 29

Also a part of:

Special Collection: Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives

Strategies for Constructing an Institutional Identity: Three Case Studies from the Liturgical Office of Saint Edmund Martyr
Strategies for Constructing an Institutional Identity: Three Case Studies from the Liturgical Office of Saint Edmund Martyr

Steffen Hope

2019-03-27 Volume 5 • Issue 1 • 2019 • 22

Also a part of:

Special Collection: Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives

Introduction to the Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives Special Collection
Introduction to the Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives Special Collection

Katharine Handel

2020-02-03 Volume 6 • Issue 1 • 2020 • 2

Also a part of:

Special Collection: Authors, Narratives, and Audiences in Medieval Saints’ Lives

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Special Collections