1st Edition

Saints, Infirmity, and Community in the Late Middle Ages

By Jenni Kuuliala Copyright 2020
236 Pages
by Routledge

236 Pages
by Routledge

236 Pages
by Routledge

Bodily suffering and patient, Christlike attitudes towards that suffering were among the key characteristics of sainthood throughout the medieval period. Saints, Infirmity, and Community in the Late Middle Ages analyses the meanings given to putative saints' bodily infirmities in late medieval canonization hearings. How was an individual saint's bodily ailment investigated in the inquests, and... Read more
Abbreviations, Acknowledgements, Abbreviations,Introduction,-Approaching Holy Infirmity,-Canonization Processes as Sources for Holy Infirmity,Infirmitas Leading to Saintly Life,-Infirmity, Conversion, and the Path to Sainthood,-Ailing Health and Chastity in Marriage,Patientia and the Borders of Holy Infirmity,-(Un)diagnosing Holy Illness and Impairment,-Old Age and Infirmity,-Infirmity, Raptures, and the Marks of Passion,-The Saint and the Suffering Family,Abstinence, Devotional Practices, and Social Control,-Harmful penitentia and Discretion,-Controlling Austerity,Holy Infirmity and the Devotees,-Encountering the Infirm Saint,-The Saint as a Medicator,-Cure and the Benefits of Infirmity, Conclusions: Infirmity, community, and canonization, Bibliography,-Manuscripts,-Printed Sources,-Literature, Index.

Biography

Dr. Jenni Kuuliala is a senior research fellow at the Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences at Tampere University, working on illness, disability, and healing in the late medieval and early modern period.

Saints, Infirmity, and Community in the Late Middle Ages is an outstanding study of disability, gender, and sanctity in thirteenth- through fifteenth-century Europe. [...] Kuuliala makes an important contribution to our knowledge of medieval cultural constructs of bodily alterity.,- Julie Singer, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 62, Iss. 1