Saints Society

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course is about: how and why saints fascinated medieval people and still fascinate modern historians. We will examine the various kinds of medieval saints: male and female, high-born and lowly, popular and official, aspiring and failed. We will also look at the ways that medieval people reacted to saints and the role that devotion to the saints played in medieval culture. We will study how medieval people honored their saints (and sometimes defamed them) and what was expected from saints in return; what kinds of people became recognized saints, and how this recognition happened (or failed to happen); and what sort of stories were told about saints and how this hagiography (hagio-holy, graphy-writing; thus writing about the holy) was valued within medieval culture. We will be examining popular (and unusual) practices regarding saints, such as the treatment of saints’ corpses, as well as the development of the juridical process of canonization. Our approach to the phenomena of saints and their veneration in medieval society will be historical, anthropological, artistic, literary, and sociological.