This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
Saints were, in the words of Sarah Salih, 'at once the superheroes and celebrities of medieval England', a ‘multicultural assembly’ of role models, intercessors and protectors. This module focuses in detail on the lives, visions and theology of selected historical women saints from across medieval Europe, exploring the ways in which their sanctity is constructed through written and other evidence. We will consider the extent to which sanctified status confers paradoxical qualities, as saints simultaneously subvert and reinforce social and religious norms; we will also give particular attention to the power of sanctity to disrupt gender and social hierarchies, as well as national and confessional boundaries. The saints studied will vary from year to year, but may include figures such as St Christina of Markyate, St Elizabeth of Hungary, St Birgitta of Sweden and St Catherine of Siena.
Contact hours: 20
Assessment will be in the form of:
1) an essay of 1500 words responding to a pack of source materials (20%)
2) an independent research essay of 3000 words on a topic of the student's choice (60%)
3) performance in research presentations (20%)
St Birgitta of Sweden, Liber Celestis, ed. Ellis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987)
Bokenham Osbern, 'Life of St Elizabeth', in Legendys of Hooly Wummen, ed. Serjeantson (London: Oxford University Press, 1938)
Minnis, Alastair, and Rosalynn Voaden, eds, Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition, c. 1100 – c. 1500 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010)
Raymond of Capua, Lyf of Seint Katherin of Senis (London: Wynkyn de Worde, 1492?), STC 24766
Talbot, C.H., trans., The Life of Christina of Markyate (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000)
Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn, Saints’ Lives and Women’s Literary Culture c. 1150-1300 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
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