Comments:

"An original and wise choice of extracts illustrating the wide array of hagiographical sources and styles. This collection of translated medieval saints' lives is an ideal manual for students eager to explore the Middle Ages." - Isabelle Cochelin, University of Toronto

"Mary-Ann Stouck's A Short Reader of Medieval Saints stands apart in offering an abbreviated but judicious selection of saints' lives perfectly suited as a brief introduction. The author's choices represent not only the classic texts of male sanctity: Anthony the hermit, Benedict the monastic leader, and Francis the charismatic preacher but also include the stories of the female saints that have so inspired modern readers: Perpetua the virgin martyr, Radegund the defiant queen, Mary of Egypt the penitent prostitute, and Catherine of Siena the mystic bride of Christ. For the most part presented in their entirety, the texts range from accounts of torture and trials, to descriptions of virtues and visions, to letters in the saint's own words. Excerpts from the Golden Legend present tales from a best-seller of the Middle Ages, while other selections convey a vivid picture of cult practices ranging from relic theft to pilgrimage. In sum, the book fills a particular need with an elegant sufficiency." - Cynthia J. Hahn, Hunter College and the Graduate Center-CUNY

"Mary-Ann Stouck offers a judicious and opinionated selection of hagiography in an anthology of extracts of pre-existing Modern English translations of medieval Latin texts. There is much to recommend in this volume." - Sarah Salih, The Medieval Review

Praise for the earlier volume, Medieval Saints: A Reader:

"Medieval Saints is a collection remarkable for both its range and for its respect for the richness of the individual texts. Through it the reader will be able to trace the origin, the diffusion and the many layers of meaning of a central element of Christianity for a period of well over a millennium. We begin with the martyrs, with vivid tales of public cruelty in the cities of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean and with holy men and women in a recognizably Roman world in its last days. We end often with the same figures transformed over time so as to become part of the Christian 'folk-lore' of all Western Europe. Gathered from the vernacular languages of Europe, as well as from the Latin texts, this collection does justice to the many layers to which the cult of the saints penetrated, and to the constantly changing views of the human person implied in the idea of Christian sanctity. To read it is to re-live an entire era in the imaginative history of Christian Europe." - Peter Brown, Princeton University

Mary-Ann Stouck is a retired Associate Professor of Humanities at Simon Fraser University. She is the editor of Medieval Saints: A Reader (Broadview Press: 1999) and the author of a variety of essays and studies on saints' lives and Middle English literature.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

Foreword

1. The Passion of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas

2. Christianity in the Desert: St. Antony the Great

3. The Life and Miracles of St. Benedict

4. Venantius Fortunatus's Life of St. Radegund

5. Theft of Relics: The Translation of SS. Marcellinus and Peter

6. The Pilgrim's Guide to St. James of Compostella

7. St. Francis of Assisi: His Conversion and Stigmata

8. Four 'Lives' from The Golden Legend

9. Catherine of Siena: Her Life and Letters

Index of Topics

Sources

Reviews

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