Writing Holiness

Genre and Reception across Medieval Hagiography

Edited by Jessica Barr Edited by Barbara Zimbalist

Book cover: Writing Holiness

Extent: 281, 281 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Cursor Mundi

Series volume number: 43

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(September 2023)

ISBN: 9782503601984

Price: $107.00

In stock

Writing Holiness offers new, theoretically-driven readings of Christian hagiographic texts from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, England, and the Low Countries.


Writing Holiness contributes to exciting new critical conversations in the study of medieval hagiography in Western Christianity. Recent years have seen innovative approaches to the literatures of sanctity through emergent theoretical discourses, such as disability studies and trans theory. At the same time, traditional methodologies such as manuscript studies and reception history continue to generate new perspectives on the production, circulation, and reception of the sacred textual canon. Through ten unique contributions that draw from both new and established theories and methodologies, this volume charts the development, movement, and reception of Christian hagiographic texts in localities ranging from the Iberian Peninsula to the Scandinavian Archipelago from the early to the late Middle Ages. Each chapter traces hagiographic development over generic, temporal, cultural, and linguistic boundaries, and considers the broader contours of the sacred imaginary that come into view as a result of such critically intersectional inquiry.

  • Edited by Jessica Barr
  • Edited by Barbara Zimbalist