Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Saints' Lives
Editor: Paul Halsall
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is located at
the
Fordham University Center for
Medieval Studies.
Guide to Contents
The structure of this section of the Sourcebook is as follows. You can browse
through the entire list, or jump directly to the part that interests you by selecting the
underlined links.
- Main Page
will take you back to Sourcebook main page.
- Selected Sources will take you to
the index of selected and excerpted medieval sources.
- Full Text Sources will take you to the
page on non-hagiographal full etexts.
- Search the Sourcebook will enable
searches of the full texts of all the source texts at Fordham, at ORB, or selected
ancient, late antique, and medieval text databases.
SAINTS' LIVES
Introduction
Saints' lives are a major resource for anyone concerned with the history of the late
ancient world, Byzantium, or the Latin Middle ages. Just as whole genres of ancient
literature vanished or diminished, the genre of hagiography became a major form of
literary production. Such saint's Lives - or vitae - survive in astonishing
numbers. Careful reading of them reveals, as one might expect, a great deal about the
religious life of the periods that produced them. Frequently, however, such Lives are also our best sources for basic social and cultural history. They provide information
on, among other things:- details of daily life; food and drink; organization of local
rural and urban society; the impact of commerce; gender relations; class relations; and
even, on occasion, specific dates for military and political history. This page's goal is to present ancient, Byzantine, and medieval hagiographic original
texts - in translation and otherwise - along with basic data on the cult of saints.
Modern Christians, especially Orthodox Christians, still read such lives for their
religious value. They will find some of these texts profitable for that goal. But the
emphasis here is on the historical understanding of the texts and the cult of
saints. [The word cult, by the way, is a technical term referring to the religious
practices surrounding devotion to saints.] Web Sites for Hagiography
- WEB Christian
Hagiography
The web site of the Bollandists, a society within the Jesuits which for three centuries
has lead the way in the scientific investigation of hagiography and the cult of the
saints.
-
WEB Hagiography Site [At ORB]
Web site by Thomas Head, one of the leading experts on Western Hagiography. This site
contains translations made by Prof. Head, truly excellent bibliographies, and an incipient
encyclopedia of hagiography.
-
WEB St.
Pachomius Library
The St. Pachomius Library is a Greek Orthodox project to put Byzantine texts on the
internet, including many saints' lives.
-
WEB Ecole Initiative: Vitae
Comprehensive listing of online source texts (including those here) in alphabetical order.
- WEB The
Military Martyrs
A web site by David Woods focused on the military martyrs.
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Non-Christian Biography
Hagiography is not "biography" as such, but the genres clearly overlap. A
number of classical authors wrote "lives" which greatly influenced later
Christian hagiographical writings. Moreover, the accounts of the Jewish martyrs under the
Seleucids provided important themes to Christian writers.
-
Philostratus: Life of Apollonius
of Tyana, c. 220 CE [At Livius.org]
Extended extracts from the Loeb version. The comparison with the Gospel is striking.
- Diogenes Laërtius: The Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book VI: The Cynics [Antisthenes, Diogenes,
Monimus, Onesicritus, Crates, Metrocles, Hipparchia, Menippus, Menedemus.]
- Diogenes Laërtius: The Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers: Book VII: The Stoics [Zeno, Ariston, Herillus,
Dionysius, Cleanthes, Sphaerus, Chrysippus]
- Diogenes Laërtius: The Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers The Sceptics: Life of Pyrrho
- Plutarch (46-120 CE): Parallel Lives,
(complete in English), Arthur Clough's translation. [At Project Gutenberg].
- Suetonius: Lives of the Caesars [complete]
- Suetonius: De Viris Illustris, c. 106-113
C.E.
- The Life of Adam and Eve: The
Biblical Story in Judaism and Christianity, [At Virginia]
An extended web project on the text of the Vita of Adam and Eve on Latin, Greek, Armenian,
Slavic, and Georgian, as well as discussion in medieval commentaries.
- Fourth Book of Maccabees: The Death of the Maccabees circa. 63 BCE-70CE [RSV]
This book is in an "Appendix" of Greek Orthodox Bibles (although not part of the
Latin Church's deuterocanonica). Its account of the persecution the Maccabees
influenced later martyrdom accounts in many ways. The Maccabees and their mother were
celebrated as saints in Orthodox churches.
-
St. Jerome: De Viris Illustribus,
or On Illustrious Men [At New Advent][From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
Jerome discusses both pagan and Christian figures. He gives biographical information which
is clearly distinct from hagiographic genres.
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I: Apostolic Era Saints
The following texts - all accounts of the martyrdoms of the apostles - are
apocryphal. See Vol. 8 of Ante-Nicene Fathers for further notes and details.
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II: Early Christian Martyrs
LATIN AND GREEK
- The
Martyrdom of Polycarp, 2nd century.
See also
Catholic Encyclopedia:
POLYCARP, SAINT
One of the earliest surviving genuine passion accounts. Polykarp was a bishop of Smyrna
and had known people who had known the apostles.
- Martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch,
2nd Century. [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- John Chrysostom: Homily on
Ignatius of Antioch. [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
The homily begins with a notable assertion of the equality of the sexes in sainthood.
- John Chrysostom (c.347-407): Homily on Babylas [At New Advent]
[From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
-
John Chrysostom (c.347-407): On Eutropius the
Eunuch, Patrician and Consul - Homily 1 and Homily 2 [At St. Michael]
- Perpetua: The Passion of SS. Perpetua and Felicity.
The Latin Original is
available [At The Latin Library]
. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Sts.
Felicitas and Perpretua; and
Peter Dronke's
Discussion of Perpetua [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
This text is composed, in part, of Perpetua's own account of her trial, and of her
visions. It is thus among the earliest of all texts ascribed to a Christian woman.
According to Thomas Heffernan [Sacred Biography, (New York: Oxford UP, 1988), 190]
this text also sees the earliest use of the topos of Christ, the Bridegroom of the
saint. Perpetua is "the wife (matrona) of Christ, the beloved of God" (17:2)
- Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History: Martyrdom
of St. Domnina and Daughters. [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
A text, and a story, which has always been problematic - the saint and her daughters drown
themselves rather than submit to rape.
- Martyrdom of Justin, Chariton,
and other Roman Martyrs [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
An account of a martyrdom drawn from the legal proceedings against the martyrs.
- Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena and Rebecca. [From Ante-Nicene
and Nicene Fathers Series]
- The Persecution & Martyrdoms of Lyons In 177 A.D.: The Letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons to
the Churches of Asia and Phrygia including the story of the Blessed Blandina.
-
Gregory of Tours (539-594): Polyeuktos
the Martyr, d. c. 259, from De gloria martyrum.. [Latin and English] [At Internet Archive, from Todd
Parment's Polyeuktos page]
The page also contains a
Latin
Version of his Martydom from Acta Sanctorum, February II, 651-52. Also
available, via the link above, are a number of maps, diagrams, and pictures of the
exacavation of the sixth-century Church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople.
- Martyrdom of St. Januarius, translated in St.
Pachomius Library
As San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, and whose liquefying blood remains the
occasion of intense concern. See also
Mike Epstein: Spectroscopy of the
Januarius Blood [At ASU]
- The Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs. [From Ante-Nicene
and Nicene Fathers Series]
-
Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Two Homilies on the Forty
Martyrs of Sebasteia , trans Casimir McCambly, [At Nyssa Homepage/BHSU]
- Leo I: Sermon 85: On St
Laurence, [At New Advent]
St. Laurence was broiled to death. Hence he became patron saint of cooks. [His churches
typically have a griddle rather than a cross on top.]
- Martyrdom of the Holy Confessors
Shamuna, Guria, and Habib. [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
This is the version by Symeon Metaphrastes. See also ECOLE entry on
Simeon Metaphrastes
- Pontius the Deacon: The Life and
Passion of Cyprian. [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Prudentius. Peristephanon.
Book 3: Panting for God. [At Electronic Antiquity] [
Complete text available in Latin at The Latin Library]
SYRIAC, COPTIC and OTHER ORIENTAL
-
Severus, Bishop of Al-Ushmunain:
Life
of the Apostle and Evangelist Mark, (Severus, fl. ca. AD 955 - 987), trans. from
Arabic, [At St. Pachomius Library]
- Acts of Sharbil. [At New
Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Martyrdom of Habib translated from Syriac, [from St.
Pachomius Library]
- Martyrdom of Habib the Deacon.
[At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Homily on Habib the Martyr.
[At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Homily on Guria and Shamuna.
[At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Moses of Chorene. [At New
Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Bardesan. [At New Advent]
[From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- The Martyrdom of Barsamya.
[At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
-
The Genuine Acts of Peter of
Alexandria. [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Martyrdom of Peter of Alexandria, translated from
Latin, [At St. Pachomius Library]
- Martyrdom of St. Pelagia of Ceasarea, translated from
Ge'ez, [At St. Pachomius Library]
-
Ethiopian Synaxarion Notice: St.
Pisentius of Qift, trans. E.W. Budge., [At St. Pachomius Library]
MILITARY MARTYRS
RISE OF THE CULT OF SAINTS IN THE WEST
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III: Early Monks [Eastern]
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IV: Patristic Era Saints
- Mark the Deacon: Life of Porphyry of Gaza, 5th
Century.
A fascinating account of the Christian destruction of Paganism in Gaza.
- Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Life of Macrina,
trans. W.K. Lowther Clarke.
One of the most important lives of a female saint. This is an account of Gregory's
strongminded sister, Macrina (c.327-379)
-
Gregory of Nyssa
(c.335-d.c.395): Index. [At BHSU] See also Catholic Encyclopedia: SAINT GREGORY
OF NYSSA
-
Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Eulogy for Basil The Great,
trans Casimir McCambly, [At Nyssa Homepage/BHSU]
-
Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Funeral Oration for the Empress
Flaccilla, trans Casimir McCambly, [At Nyssa Homepage/BHSU]
-
Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Funeral Oration on Meletius,
trans Casimir McCambly, [At Nyssa Homepage/BHSU]
-
Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Life of Gregory the Wonderworker,
trans Casimir McCambly, [At Nyssa Homepage/BHSU]
- Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Funeral Oration on Meletius [At
New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Gregory Nazianzus: Oration 21: On Athanasius
See
Encyclopeadia Britannica
(9th ed): Athanasius
- Gregory Nazianzus: Oration 18: On His Father
- Gregory Nazianzus: Oration: On His Sister Gorgonia
- Gregory Nazianzus: Oration 7: On His Brother
Caesarius
- Augustine of Hippo (354-430): Confessions, Trans.
[From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series][At CCEL]. The Latin Text is also
online [At Upenn].
- Augustine of Hippo (354-430): Confessions, in modern
translation, [At Upenn]. Oulter's
Translation is also available in PDF format [At Upenn].
-
Possidius: Life St. Augustine,
Full Text, [In German Translation] [At Internet Archive, from Augustinian Site/Germany]; A machine translation of the first 13 chapters is also
available.
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V: Byzantine Saints
- Eusebius of Caesarea: Life of the Blessed Emperor
Constantine, 4th Century [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
The Emperor Constantine - who legalised Christianity - is a saint in the Orthodox church.
This single act overcame, for later generations, his violent public and private life and
death as an Arian.
- Eusebius of Caesarea: Oration in Praise of
Constantine, 4th Century [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Evagrius Ponticus: St. Simeon Stylites from Ecclesiastical
History, I.13,
- The Life of Daniel the Stylite, Full text,, the
fifth-century saint who spent 33 years on a pillar in Constantinople. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Stylites
The first and most famous "pillar saint" was St. Symeon Stylites. But Symeon's
base was in Syria. Daniel, based in Constantinople, exercised enormous religious power.
- Life of Matrona of Perge, d.c. 510-515, trans Khalifa
Ben Nasser, [full text of Metaphrastic Life: selections from Vita Prima],
An example of a "transvestite" saint who was also a historical figure.
- The Life of Theodore of Sykeon.
This Life of seventh-century saint is a major source for Byzantine rural and social
history, as well as about the development of the cult of saints. Theodore's devotion to
St. George is especially noteworthy in this text.
- Leontius: The Life of John the Almsgiver, 7th
Century.
The 7th-century Patriarch of Alexandria just before the Arab Conquest was later taken as
patron by the Order of knights Hospitallers. As such he was the only Byzantine era saint
to achieve popularity in the Western middle ages.
- John of Damascus: Barlaam and
Ioasaph Translation: G. Woodward & H. Mattingly [At OMACL]
The story is, in fact, a Christianization of the story of the Buddha, who lived about 500
years BCE. Josaphat is a Greek mis-rendition of the Sanskrit Bodhisattva -
not so much a Byzantine saint, but a saint with a Byzantine vita. See also
Catholic Encyclopedia: John
Damascene
- Life of St. Mary of Egypt from the Canon of St.
Andrew of Crete. See also
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Saint Mary of Egypt
- Life of Irene, Abbess of the Convent of
Chrysobalanton, trans. Jan Olof Rosenqvist
- Life of Mary the Younger, d.c. 903, trans Paul
Halsall, [First five chapters, and concluding prayer]
- The Life of St. Thomaïs of Lesbos, full text in
Greek [Unicode]
-
Nestor: The Martyrdom of Boris and
Gleb, d. 1015, [At Univ.Durham]
Important Russian saints.
- The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An
Eleventh-Century Pillar Saint [At DO]
A good part of the published translation. In PDF Format
-
Gregory Palamas: On Unceasing
Prayer, from the Life of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Salonica, Wonderworker (this is taken from the comments of St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, editor of the
Philokalia) [At Palamas Page]
- The Translation of Saint Nicholas [Greek Anonymous],
13th Century MS,
The story of the sacred theft of the relics of St. Nicholas from Myra in 1087.
- Gregory of Constantinople: Life of St. Romylos, 14th
Century, [full permission pending]
- Life of Sergius of Radonezh,
(c.1314-1392), f.d. Sept. 25 [At Durham]
-
The Life of St. Kosmas Aitolos,
with his Teaching and Letters, 1714-1779. Trans by Nomikos Vaporis, [At St. Mary of Egypt]
This text has the Antisemitic aspects of Kosmos' life and works removed.
- Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives
in English Translation [At DO]
Complete texts of translations of female saints lives.
The texts are all in PDF form [for which you need the free Acrobat reader,
downloadable from the index page]. Although it is possible to read these within the
browser with Acrobat as a plugin, that often seems to destabilize a system. I recommend
downloading the files onto a hard disk, and then opening them with Acrobat running
independantly of the Browser.
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VI: Western Europe: Original Lives
EARLY MEDIEVAL
- Life of
St. Martin of Tours, [At St. Johns Minn.] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series], See also
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Martin of Tours
- Gregory I (Dialogos) (r.5-04): Second Dialogue
(Life of St. Benedict). [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- Gregory I (Dialogos) (r.590-604): Gregory I (Dialogos):
Second Dialogue (Life of St. Scholastica). [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
- The Most Ancient Life of St Gregory the
Great, by a monk or nun at Whitby, 713 [at Julian Site]
- Bede (673-735): Gregory the Great, from the Ecclesiastical
History.
- Dado of Rouen: The Life of Eligius, 588-660, trans, Jo
Ann McNamara.
- Gregory of Tours (539-594): Eight Books of Miracles,
Selections.
- Gregory of Tours (539-594): Gregory of Tours: Life
of St. Gall, from Lives of the Fathers
- Bede (673-735): The Life of Cuthbert.
Cuthbert was, for a short time, bishop of Lindesfarne. In death he became perhaps the most
celebated saint in Northern England.
- Bede (673-735): The Lives of the Abbots of Weremouth
and Jarrow.
A series of very short lives. Bede here effectively provides a good deal of local history.
CAROLINGIAN ERA (9th-10th Centuries)
- Huneberc of Heidenheim: The Hodoeporican of St. Willibald,
8th Century
- Huneberc of Heidenheim. Prologue
to the Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald. c. 750-75CE. Alternate trans. by Thomas Head [At
ORB]
- Willibald: The Life of St. Boniface
- The Correspondence of St. Boniface
- Texts about St. Boniface See also Catholic Encyclopedia: St Boniface
- Alcuin: The Life of Willibrord, c.796
-
Alcuin: The Life
of St. Vedastus, bishop of Arras, trans. Mark Lasnier, [At Mt. Holyoke].
A
Commentary by Lynn
Nelson is also available, as is a discussion of the Biblical book of Zechariah used
by Alcuin (The text is set to be white, so if the page comes up blank, change your browser
default settings).
- Eigil: Life of Sturm, early 9th Century
- Einhard: The Life of Charlemagne . The
Latin text of the
Vita
Karoli Magni is also available [At the Latin Library].
Charlemagne was celebrated as a saint, but this is not a saint's life in the usual
meaning of the term.
- Rudolf of Fulda: Life of Leoba, c. 836
- Rimbert: The Life of Anskar, the Apostle of the North,
801-865. See also
Catholic
Encyclopedia: St Anschar
- Abbo of Fleury: The Martyrdom of St. Edmund, King
of East Anglia, 870, trans. Kenneth Cultler
- The Life of Liutberga, 9th Century, trans, Jo Ann
McNamara.
- Bertholdus of Micy. Life
of St. Maximinus excerpts on the story of the founding abbot of Micy, located near
Orléans, composed in the early ninth century. Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
- The Life of Lebuin, 10th Century
- Letaldus of Micy. Journey of
the Relics of St. Junianus, including a description of the Peace Council of Charroux
in 989. Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
- Ademar of Chabanne's Chronicle:
Discovery of the Head of John the Baptist, 1016. Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
- Andrew of Fleury. Miracles of
St. Benedict. Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
A description of the Peace League of Bourges and its campaign in 1038.
- Anonymous. Life of St.
Gregory of Nicopolis. Excerpts on his burial, Early 11th Cent. Trans. by Thomas Head
[At ORB]
- Peter Damian. Life of Romuald.
excerpts on his relicst. Late 11th Cent. Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
- Hugh of Fleury. Life,
Translation, and Miracles of St. Sacerdos: Prologue, Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
Discussing his methodology as a hagiographer and historian reconstructing the life of a
long dead saint.
- Leyenda de Santiago (translated by William Granger Ryan).[At UCLA]
HIGH MIDDLE AGES (11-13th Centuries)
- Two Lives of SS. Rupert (Robert), Apostle to Austria,
and Erenruda (Erentraud)
- The Life of Burchard Bishop of Worms, trans.
William North, 1025
The famous canonist was also a saint (with a limited cult, but a feast day of August
20th).
- The Life of King Edward the Confessor.
[At Cambridge]
Visual presentation of Cambridge University Library MS. Ee.3.59 which "contains the
only copy of an illustrated Anglo-Norman verse Life of St Edward the Confessor, written in
England probably in the later 1230s or early 1240s, and preserved in this manuscript,
executed c. 1250-60.
- Reginald of Durham: Life of St. Goderic, a 12th
century merchant.
- Two Accounts of the Early Career of St. Bernard, c.
1150
Contains excerpts from William of St. Thierry: Life of St. Bernard, c. 1140, and The
Acta Sanctorum of Arnold of Bonneval & Geoffrey of Clairvaux, c. 1153
- Edward Grim: The Murder of Becket, Dec. 29, 1170 from Vita S. Thomae, Cantuariensis Archepiscopi et Martyris trans. Dawn Marie Hayes
[dms0603@is2.nyu.edu], See also
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Thomas Becket
- Thomas of Monmouth: The Life and Miracles of
St. William of Norwich, 1144, excerpts.
One of the major accusations against Jews of the charge that they killed Christian
children. This blood-libel was the center of a number of saint's cults.
- St. Francis
- St. Dominic
- Dominican Order: The
Lives of the Brethren of the Order of Preachers, 1206-59 [At Dominican Central]
- St. Dominic: Biographical
Documents, edited with an Introduction By Francis C. Lehner, O.P. [At Dominican
Central]
- Jordan of Saxony: Livret sur les orignes de l'Ordre
des Prêcheurs [text file] d'après la traduction du frère Marie-Humbert Vicaire,
o.p., parue dans l'ouvrage Saint Dominique et ses frères. Évangile ou croisade, coll.
Chrétiens de tous les temps, n° 19, (Paris : éditions du Cerf, 1967). [In French]
. See also
Catholic Encyclopedia:
St. Dominic.
- Jordan of Saxony: Handbook on the Origins of the Order
of Preachers, a machine translation of the previous item.
- Jean de Joinville: Memoirs
of St. Louis [At Virginia]
Not exactly hagiography, but the life of St. Louis as a pious man.
- Thomas de Cantimpré:
Vita
Lutgardis Virgine in Aquiriae Brabantia
, in Latin, [At Monastic Matrix]
Lutgard was born at Tongres in 1182. D, at Aywieres, 1246. Feast. June 16. She was a
mystic, and, for the last eleven years of her life, blind. [DOS]
LATE MIDDLE AGES
- John Lydgate: The Lives of
Ss. Edmund and Fremund, 15th century, [At U. Alberta]
A web project presenting the [quite readable] late Middle English text.
-
Archbishop Richard le Scrope,
d. 1405. [At CUA]
[This page has been created not only as an archive of textual and pictorial materials
pertaining to Archbishop Scrope, but also as an experiment to see how emerging
technologies might serve the purposes of interdisciplinary projects in medieval studies.
In short, Hyper/Hagiography is intended as a model of one way in which students of
ecclesiastical, political, and literary history might developinterdisciplinary hypermedia
sites relevant to their own research interests.]
- St. Bridget of Sweden: Revelations to the Popes,
d. 1373, Latin edition by Arne Jönsson, [and Microsoft
Word Version],
-
Heliga Birgittas: Uppenbarelser,
[Revelations of St. Bridget], in Swedish [At Göteborg University]
- The Life and Doctrine of
Saint Catherine of Genoa [At CCEL]
Includes a Life, The Spiritual Dialogue, and Treatise on Purgatory, all from a 1874, 1907
English version. It is unclear from the etext if this Life is a translation of the Libro
de la vita mirabile e dottrina santa de la beta Caterinetta da Genoa, or a modern
work.
- Transcript of Trial of Joan of Arc, 1431
Joan was not canonized until the 20th century.
- Sieur Louis de Conte: Personal Recollections of
Joan of Arc [in fact, a fictional account by Mark Twain]
- Image and Story of Anderl von Rinn: A Blood Libel Saint,
supposedly 1462, but the cult is 17th-century.
- A Legend of the Austrian Tyrol: St. Kümmernis [At this Site]
A female saint who grows a beard.
PILGRIMAGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
- The
Itinerary of the Anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux (Itinerarium Burdigalense) - 333 A.D.
[At Christus Rex]
- Egeria. Description of the
Liturgical Year in Jerusalem: Translation 4th Cent. [At Oxford]
- Egeria: Travelogue,
Translated by M.L. McClure, The Pilgrimage of Etheria, (New York, 1915) [At Yale]
- Sophronius Patriarch of Jerusalem. Two Poems on
the Holy City (Anacreontica XIX and XX) - ca. 600 A.D. [At Christus Rex]
- Anonymous. A Miracle of St.
Maximinus, c. 1050-75. Trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
Description of the pilgrimage and miraculous cure of a single individual.
-
Nasir-i-Khusraw (1046-1052): Book
of Travels (Safarnama) [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
-
Daniel (1106-1107): The
Pilgrimage of the Russian Abbot Daniel in the Holy Land, 1106-1107 A.D., annotated by
Sir C. W.Wislon (London, 1895) [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
- Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340-1400): Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, text file in original language.
The stories revolve around a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
- Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340-1400): Canterbury Tales:
The Prologue [Parallel Texts] , [uses Tables], (c.1380)
-
Anonymous: Guide-book
to Palestine. (c. 1350). Translated by. J. H. Barnard. London: Palestine
Pilgrims Text Society, 1894. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
-
Margery Kempe (1413-1415): Book
of Margery Kempe. (Text--Butler-Bowden translation of Chapter 26-34, 37-41)[At
Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
-
John Poloner (1422): Description
of the Holy Land (c. 1421), based on the translation of Aubrey Stewart from the Tobler
text. London, 1894. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
-
Felix Fabri (1480 & 1483-84): The Book of the Wanderings of Felix
Fabri (Circa 1480-1483 A.D.) trans. Aubrey Stewart, 2 vols. London: Palestine
Pilgrims' Text Society, 1896 [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
-
Pietro Casola (1494): Canon
Pietro Casola's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year 1494. trans. Mary Margaret Newett.
Manchester: The University Press, 1907. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
-
Spill: A Fictional
Pilgrimage from Valencia to Santiago in the Fifteenth Century, From the Spill or Book of Women by the fifteenth-century Valencian medical doctor, Jaume Roig.[At
UCLA]
MEDIEVAL CRITIQUES OF THE
CULT OF SAINTS
Jump Back to Contents
VII: Western Europe: Latin/Vernacular Versions of Older
Saints' Lives
Jump Back to Contents
VIII: Celtic Saints
-
WEB Celt: Irish Texts Page. The CELT Corpus of Electronic Texts at UCC, contains a number of hagiographical texts in Irish Gaelic
[and is in the process of putting more online
]
-
Óengus mac Óengobann: The Martyrology
of Oengus the Culdee, [At CELT]
- Bethada Náem nÉrenn: Lives of the
Irish Saints, [At CELT]
- Lives of the Saints from the Book of
Lismore, [At CELT]
- Betha Féchín Fabair, [At CELT],
[Life of S. Féchin of Fore]
- Betha Fursa, [At CELT],[The Life of
Fursa]
- Cáin Eimíne Báin annso, [At
CELT]
- Story of the abbot of Druimenach, who
was changed into a woman, [At CELT]
- St. Patrick (5th Century): Confession [At
CCEL] See also
Catholic
Encyclopedia: St. Patrick.
-
Fiacc: Hymn
on Life of St. Patrick [At St. Pachomius Library]
- Adamnan: Life of St. Columba and Latin Text: Book I and Book II, cc.1-30.
St. Columba, who established the monastery at Iona, was one of the most famous of the
Irish missionary saints.
- Jocelyn, a monk of Furness: The Life
of Kentigern (Mungo), translated by Cynthia Whidden Green
- The Life of St. Declan of Ardmore [Electronic
Transcription 1997 Dennis McCarthy]
- Jonas the Monk: Life of St. Columban, d. 615. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Abbey and
Diocese of Bobbio
Columban represents the extension of the Irish missionary enterprise to continental
Europe. This Life is especially interesting for its account of his interraction
with animals. It also provides information on Merovingian royal politics of the the
period.
- Caradoc of Llancarfan: The Life of Gildas,1130-1150.
Jump Back to Contents
IX: Metaphrastes and The Golden Legend
Historians interested in the "real lives" of individual saints value the
earliest texts above all others. But for assessing the cult of saints in Byzantium and in
Western Europe, two rewritten collections of saints' lives dominate the manuscript record.
There are about 700 surviving manuscripts of the 10th-century Byzantine
"re-phraser" St. Symeon Metaphrastes. As a result his work dominates the later
Byzantine conception of sanctity. Jacobus de Voragine, writing about 1260, achieved a
similar dominance in later western hagiographical literature - about 900 manuscripts of his Golden Legend survive. From 1470 to 1530 it was also the most
often printed book in Europe. This section of the Saints' Lives page will list online
translations, or texts, of Lives from these two major collections.
RESOURCES
- Symeon Metaphrastes
- Jacobus de Voragine (1230-1298): The Golden Legend
TEXTS
- Symeon Metaphrastes
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda) 1275, As Englished by William Caxton, 1483
The full text of the 7 volume Temple Classics edition, available in large volume files,
and individual feast/saint files.
- Jacobus de Voragine (1230-1298): The Golden Legend: Texts on Web
Texts in Voragine's order, numbering following William Ryan, (Princeton: 1993)
- In English
- Leyenda de Santiago (translated by William Granger Ryan).[At UCLA]
-
169. The Life of
Saint Cecilia. English. trans (1483) by William Caxton from Jacobus de Voragine: Golden
Legend. [At Harvard]
Cecilia is the Patron Saint of music in the west.
-
Legend of Saint Catherine of
Alexandria (translated by William Granger Ryan) [At TEAMS]
- In Latin
-
2. St. Andrew,
Apostle, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
3. St. Nicholas,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
4. St. Lucy, in
Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
7. St. Anastasia,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
11. St Thomas
Apostle, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
12. St. Silvester,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
15. St. Paul the
Hermit, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
18. St. Macarius,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
21. St. Anthony
Abbot, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
23. St. Sebastian,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
25. St. Vincent,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
30. St. Julian,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
38. St. Blasius,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
57. St. Ambrose,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
58. St. George,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
62. A Virgin of
Antioch, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
84. St. Marina,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
94. St. Alexis,
Homo Dei, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
96. St. Mary
Magdalene, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
99. St. James the
Great, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
100. St.
Christopher, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
101. Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
149. St. Francis,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
Judas Iscariot,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
Jump Back to Contents
X: Post Medieval Saints-
With the advent of printing, and the massive increase in available source material of
all types, hagiography after the middle ages becomes less central to historians
researching non-religious topics. It remains of interest, however, for religious history. But the nature of hagiography also changes. For ancient, Byzantine, and early Western
Medieval saints, the Life often provided the unique data on the saint. When the
popes took control, especially after the mid-thirteenth century, and increasingly
formalized the process of canonization, the nature of available materials about a
saint changed. Catholic saints (as also, in a less methodical way Orthodox saints) now
acquired at dossier organized as a legal brief.
- William Roper: The Life
of Sir Thomas More
This is not exactly a saint's life, since Thomas More was not canonized until 1935.
-
Teresa of Avila: Life,
available from CCEL/Wheaton College in various formats [At CCEL]
- John Vianney, (Known as the Curé d'Ars): Biographical Sketch, See:
- Bernardette Soubirous: My Name
is Bernardette, 1858, [At EWTN]
Supposedly a sort of oral autobiography. See also Report on Her Body [At EWTN]
- Bernardette Soubirous: Bishop's
Commission Report, 1862, [At Catholic Online]
-
Lourdes: Cure of Amelie
Hebert, Cure of
Catharine Lapeyre, Cure
of Pierre De Rudder, all translated from 'Medical Proof of the Miraculous', by E. Le
Bac [At Internet Archive, from Apana]
Modern miracle stories.
- Thérèse of Lisieux: Modern Account
of Her Life, [At EWTN]
- Thérèse of Lisieux: Extracts
from her Writings, [At EWTN]
-
Thérèse of Lisieux: Histoire
d'une âme, full text, in French, [At Livres Mystiques]
- Thérèse of Lisieux: Pius
XI: Homily at the Canonization of St. Thérèse, 17 May 1925, [At EWTN]
The file also includes the bull of canonization Vehementer exultamus hodie
-
Congregation for the Causes of Saints: Decrees regarding the
Canonization of the servants of God, Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto, 1989 [At
Internet Archive, from Apana]
The visionaries at Fatima.
- Francis Johnston: Alexandrina [At EWTN]
This is not a medieval saint's life but an account of a modern Catholic saint which
demonstrates a certain continuity. The conservative Catholic website which presents this
life describes it as follows - A somewhat unusual life of a pain-wracked bed-ridden
cripple who took Fatima to heart and dedicated her life to making reparation for the sins
of men. Miraculous aspects : re-lived the passion of Christ numerous times, spent 6 weeks
under hostile 24 hour supervision in a hospital eating and drinking nothing and suffered
no weight loss and no ill-effects, lived 13 years without food or drink!
-
Jim Forest: Biography of Dorothy Day [At Catholic Worker]
Dorothy Day is not canonized, but the founder of the Catholic Worker movement has one of
the most prominent cults among modern Catholic progressives.
- Blessed Mother Maria Skobtsova [At Geocities]
An Orthodox nun killed during the holocaust at the Ravensbruck camp. Part of an ongoing
effort to Christianize the holocaust?
Jump Back to Contents
XI: Modern Lives of Medieval Saints
With the following texts, available on the net, I have not been able to ascertain who
wrote them, or when. As a result, they are listed as "modern" texts.
Jump Back to Contents
Appendix I: Aspects of Sainthood: Modern Discussions
CANONIZATION Canonization procedures varied over the centuries, and from one Christian Church to
another. The Roman Catholic situation is summarized as follows:
"In the first six centuries of the Church, the sanctity, at first of martyrs, then
of confessors of the faith, and later of those of heroic Christian virtue and of those
exemplary in their apostolic zeal for the Church -- doctors, bishops, missionaries -- was
so acclaimed by the vox populi of the faithful. From the sixth to the tenth century the
definitive pronouncement of approval on the part of the local bishop gradually became a
necessary culmination of a process of inquiry into the validity of such a veneration, the
cult of doulia on the part of the faithful. Canonization has By 973 formal approval of the
Roman Pontiff was deemed a matter of greater prestige for the veneration of a venerated
saint, St. Udalricus. Under Gregory IX (1234) papal canonization became the only and
exclusive legitimate form of inquiry into the saints' lives and miracles according to
newly established procedural formes and canonical processes. In 1588 Pope Sixtus V, by his Immensa Aeterni Dei, entrusted the process of papal canonization to the
Congregation of Rites. In 1642 Urban VIII ordered all the decrees and studies of
canonizations during his own pontificate to be published in one volume -- and a century
later, Benedict XIV systematized in a clear and definitive manner the basic expectations
of heroic virtue and the indispensable requirements of the canonical processes according
to the evidences of the Congregation of Rites. Pius X (1914) divided this Congregation
into two sections: one, the liturgical section, and the other assigned entirely to the
causes for canonization. In 1930, Pius XI established the historical section devoted to
the critical-historical scrutiny of the evidences put forth in the causes for
canonization."
[from a critical book on Hans Kung by Joseph F. Costanzo S.J.: On the net at http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/KUNGINF.HTM]
In 1917, the formal procedure was incorporated in the Church's Code of Canon Law. In
1982, Pope John Paul II introduced a new simplified process. After a rigorous examination
of a candidate's life, work and writings, undertaken by the Postulator of the Cause, the
Pope accepts that the Servant of God has practised the Christian virtues in a heroic
degree, and declares them Venerable, the first of three steps on the road of
sainthood.Following a physical miracle, such as an unexplained healing, the candidate is
Beatified by the Pope, and declared Blessed. A further physical miracle is required before
the person is Canonised and declared a Saint of the Church.
[Info supplied by The British Royal Mail, 27 Feb., 1997.
CALENDARS
HISTORY OF SAINTHOOD
RELICS
WOMEN AND SANCTITY
- Lina Eckenstein: Women Under
Monasticism, Chapters on Saint-Lore and Convent Life Between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500.
(New York: Russell and Russell, 1963), chaps. 4, 6, 7, 9 [At Yale]
- Kevin Corrigan: Syncletica
and Macrina: Two Early Lives of Women Saints, Vox Benedictina 6/3 (1989)
241-256. [At Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site]
-
Onnie Duvall: Radegund
of Poitiers (ca. 518-587), [At ORB]. See also Alex Perkins:
Life of Radegund, [At
Cambridge]
-
Margot H. King: The
Desert Mothers: A Survey of the Feminine Anchoretic Tradition in Western Europe, [At
Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site],
-
Margot H. King: The
Desert Mothers Revisited: The Mothers of the Diocese of Liège, [At Peregrina Press's
Matrologia Latina site]
-
Abby Stoner: Sisters
Between:Gender and the Medieval Beguines [At sfsu.edu]
- Katherine Gill: Open
Monasteries for Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy: Two Roman Examples [At
Monastic Matrix]
Part of
Matrix - A Collection of Resources for
the Study of Women's Religious Communities, 500-1500 [At USC]
Jump Back to Contents
APPENDIX II: Mystical Writings by, or Ascribed to,
Saints
These are links only to mystical writings by saints. For writings by the Church
Fathers, most of whom are considered as saints, see the Medieval
Sourcebook: Full Texts page.
-
Clement: Second
Epistle, c. 150, (Attributed). [At Early Christian Writings]
-
Ignatius of Antioch (d. c. 107): Index.
[At Early Christian Writings]
- Polycarp of Smryna (c.69- c.155): Epistle,
c. 130. [At Early Christian Writings]
- Zosimus: Concerning the Life of the Blessed, from Vol X
of Ante-Nicene Fathers series
-
St. Wulfstan, Bishop of Chicester: Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, c. 1014,
full text, in Latin and English. [Requires Frames] [At FSU]
-
St. Gertrud of Helfta: Herald
of Divine Grace: Book 1 and Book 2, full text in Latin
[At Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site]
- Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153): The Love of God.[At
CCEL]
- Catherine of Siena (1347-1380): Dialogue, 1370. [At CCEL] See
also Catholic Encyclopedia:
Catherine of Siena, Saint
- Julian of Norwich (1343-1443): Revelations
of Divine Love, 1371 [At CCEL] See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Juliana of
Norwich.
- The Cloud of Unknowing, 15th
century, trans Evelyn Underhill, [At CCEL]
- Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510): Treatise
on Purgatory.[At EWTN]
-
John of Ruysbroeck (1293-1381): The Adornment of
Spiritual Marriage, [At CCEL]
-
Thomas à Kempis (c.1380-1471) :The Imitation of Christ,
modern translation, [At CCEL]
-
Thomas à Kempis (c.1380-1471): The Imitation of Christ,
translated by William Benham [Project Gutenberg Release #1653]
- The Cell of Self-Knowledge.
Seven Early English Mystical Treatises, [At CCEL]
- Walter Hilton (d.1396): Treatise
Written to A Devout Man.[At CCEL]
-
Johannes Tauler: The
Inner Way [At CCEL]
-
St. John of the Cross: Spiritual Canticle of
the Soul. [At CCEL]
-
St. John of the Cross: Dark Night of the
Soul [At CCEL]
-
St. John of the Cross: Ascent of Mount Carmel [At CCEL]
-
St. John of the Cross: Collected Works [At Carmelite.com]
-
St. Teresa of Avila [Information,
At CCEL]
-
St. Theresa of Avila: The Life.
[At CCEL]
-
St. Theresa of Avila: The Way of
Perfection. [At CCEL]
-
St. Theresa of Avila: The
Interior Castle. [At CCEL]
-
St. Theresa of Avila: Obras
Completas [PDF files][In Spanish, At Santa Teresa de Avila]
-
St. Theresa of Lisieux: Obras
Completas [PDF files][I-anish, At Catholic.net]
Jump Back to Contents
APPENDIX III: Saintly Miscellany
There are quite a number of web sites which are of interest for studying the saints and
hagiograph-hese sites often contain first rate source material, but they intermix it
with a good deal of overtly modern religious commentary. They are listed here - with an
indication of their value - but need to be used with care by those engaging in
scholarship.
-
Anastasis
Home Page of the Monastery of Saint Andrew the First Called, in Manchester, England.
Another confessional page with information on Orthodox saints. Each month it hopes to
publish the Troparia for the Saints of the month as they are found in the Greek editions
of the Mega Horologion, or Book of Hours. The text of the canon to All Saints is of interest.
- Bishop Nicholas Orthodox
Library
A huge list of Orthodox saints, but basically ahistorical. The links are to a highly
variety of pages, with no indication of what kind of material is pointed to. Perhaps best
for the site's own collection of Lives of North American Orthodox saints. Unfortunately
these are also modern texts, and with no indication of sources.
- Nikolai Velimirovic: The Prologue from
Ochrid
The Prologue from Ochrid comprises very short modern synaxarion-type entries for
the Orthodox saints of each day (or, to be exact, two of three of the many possibilities).
To use this web page, one has to enter a month and date, and saints for that day are
shown. It is not possible to find a saint if you do not know the saint's feast day. The
page is connected to the Serbian Orthodox Church: Diocese of Western America site. This
also contains an
Orthodox Calendar (with
Julian Era dates), and a short list of
Serbian
Saints with attractive icons. [It must be noted that the Prologue from Ochrid site is itself located at the URL of the Serbian Unity Congress. Although the SUC site
contains much of interest to Byzantinists and those interested in the Medieval Balkans,
also promotes a modern Nationalist agenda.]
-
Encyclopedia Coptica
With a great deal of information on Coptic Christianity, and some on Coptic saints.
- The Roman
Martyrology. [At Mater Dei]
The pages says it is going to put the entire 1962 version online, but only September and
October are up as yet.
-
The Theology Library:
Saints' Page
[Used to be "CatholicMobile"] Useful guide to Roman Catholic resources on
sainthood at one of the most intelligent of the general Catholic websites.
-
Catholic Online Saints [At
catholic.org]
Extensive, but mostly short, entries in what amounts to an online Dictionary of Saints.
Not entirely reliable - it does not always make clear, for instance, that there may be
many martyrs with the same name.
- Catholic Information Network: Saints and
Martyrs. [At catholic.org]
Extensive, but mostly short, entries in what amounts to an online Dictionary of Saints.
Uses many texts from Alban Butler.
- Index of Saints. [At
erols.com]
By Katherine Rabenstein. An effort to write short biographies of all the saints of the old
Roman Calendar. In general takes a pious view of the saints. Good popular bibliography.
- The Celtic Saints. [At
gol.com]
from Edward C. Sellner: Wisdom of the Celtic Saints
-
Celtic and Old English Saints of
the Orthodox Church. [At Internet Archive]
On an Orthdox website in Canada.
- Augustinian Saints and Beati.
[At geocities]
These are the saints and beati specially commemorated by the Augustinian Order. This text
is a copy of the biographies contained in the Augustinian Missal, 1979, with additional
information.
-
A Benedictine Martyrology. [At
Osb.org]
A revision of Rev. Peter Lechner's Ausfuehrliches Martyrologium des Benedictiner-Ordens
und seiner Verzweigungen by Alexius Hoffmann, O.S.B. (Collegeville, MN: St. John's
Abbey, 1922).
-
Carmelite Saints, with short
biographies.
-
Dominican Saints.
[At 3OP.org]
Modern short biographies of the main Dominican Order saints.
- Jesuit Saints. [At
sjweb.info]
-
Calendar of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgendered Saints.
-
Peregrina Press: Translations
Not, alas, full texts, but a catalogue of the many translations of the lives of women
saints published by Peregrina.
-
Genealogy of
Popes and Saints.
Attempts to show the family relationships of medieval saints and popes.
-
WEB Companions of The Prophet [At
Witness Pioneer]
A sort of Muslim hagiography. Unfortunately, with no sources cited.
NOTE: The date of inception of the Internet
Medieval Sourcebook was 1/20/1996. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At <some indication of the site name
or location>]. No indication means that the text file is local. WEB indicates a link to one of small
number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable
overview.
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at
the Fordham University Center
for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the
Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in
providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University.
Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not
the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.
© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 20 January 2021
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