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A SHORTR EADER
OFM EDIEVASLA INTS
edited by
MARY-ANN STOUCK
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LIBRARAYN D ARCHIVECSA NADAC ATALOGUINIGN P UBLICATION
A short reader of Medieval saints / edited by Mary-Ann Stouck.
(Readings in medieval civilizations and cultures : 12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-0094-2 (pbk.).-ISBN 978-1-4426-0131-4 (bound)
Christian saints -Biography - Early works to I 800. 2. Church history - Primitive
I.
and early church, ca. 30-600 -Sources. 3. Church history - Middle Ages, 600-1500 -
Sources. I. Stouck, Mary-Ann, 1941- II. Series: Readings in medieval civilizations
and cultures 12
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PrinitnCe adn ada
CONTENTS
Foreword • 7
1. The Passion of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas • 9
2. Christianity in the Desert: St. Antony the Great • 21
3. The Life and Miracles of St. Benedict • 40
4. Venantius Fortunatus's Life of St. Radegund • 73
5. Theft of Relics: The Translation of SS. Marcellinus and Peter • 86
6. The Pilgrim's Guide to St. James of Compostella • 107
7. St. Francis of Assisi: His Conversion and Stigmata • 120
8. Four 'Lives' from The Golden Legend • 142
9. Catherine of Siena: Her Life and Letters • 156
Index of Topics • 189
Sources • 191
FOREWORD
This book has been compiled in response to a request from students and
instructors for a shorter collection of medieval saints' lives than that found
in my earlier volume for this series: Medieval Saints: A Reader. That book
was put together on the assumption that it would serve as the core primary
text for an entire semester's investigation of medieval hagiography. This new
book addresses the need for a selection that would serve as the basis for two
or three weeks' reading in a larger course on medieval culture and history.
Like the earlier book it includes both saints' 'lives' and material related to the
cult of the saints - the veneration of relics and the practice of pilgrimage. If
.
virtue naturally rules in the saints' lives, the reader may be assured that there
are scoundrels aplenty to be found in these related materials.
The present book also contains some new material. The excerpt from the
Legenda Aurea now comprises 'lives' of Agnes, Mary of Egypt, and Christo
pher, as well as the memorable James the Dismembered. Since a short collec
tion such as this must emphasize the standard works of medieval hagiography,
I have had to omit accounts of some of the more eccentric and fascinating
saints. But the excerpts from the Legenda Aurea remind us of the colorful
people - martyred virgins, harlots, and giants among them - that figured so
prominently in the popular imagination.
Selections from Raymond of Capua's Life of Catherine of Siena now con
clude the book, along with six of her Letters, in recognition of her special
importance as a late medieval saint. Her highly individualized voice marks a
change from the formulaic materials of the Legenda Aurea to the personalized
piety of the later Middle Ages. While Raymond of Capua's hagiography de
scribes the rigors of her life, we hear Catherine's unique voice in these letters
written to him, to family and friends, and_ to popes and potentates.
As in the earlier reader, BHL (Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina) numbers are
supplied where appropriate, to identify the version of a 'life' that has been
used. The introductions to selections have been revised to include material
from the section headings in the earlier book, and all selections are now
chronologically ordered.
THE PA S SION OF S S. PERPETUA AND
1.
FELICITAS
The persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire during the first three centuries
CE constituted for later writers the heroic age of the church and left an indelible imprint
on the collective Christian imagination. Nevertheless, there remains considerable argu
ment about the numbers of Christians who were killed. Official suppression of the new
faith was sporadic, despite periods of intense persecution under the emperors Decius in
248 and Diocletian in 303-11.
The following account of the martyrdom of a group of Christians in North Africa in
203 CE is exceptional because it is presented mostly in the words of two of the martyrs
themselves: a man named Saturus and a young married woman of the Roman upper
classes, Vibia Perpetua. Perpetua's words account for the major part of the 'Passion'
and take us from the time of her arrest in the town of Thuburbo Minus, a short distance
from Carthage, to the point where she is awaiting imminent death in the amphitheater.
This document, then, includes one of the few writings by women extant from the
ecirly period. However, the account also gives evidence of complex transmission. An.
unnamed author narrates the opening and ch,sing sections of the narrative and places
the martyrdoms in the context of Montanism, an important early Christian movement
whose adherents believed in the 'parousia,' that is, the imminence of the second coming
of Christ. They also promoted the importance of prophecy and women's special gifis in
this domain and took a rigorously ascetic view of earthly life. The 'Passion' is of great
intrinsic interest because it includes visions, narrated in detail, received by Perpetua
while in prison. The whole account survives in a long version in Latin and Greek
known as the 'Passio' (the Latin version is given here), and in a short version in Latin
only, known as the �eta,' perhaps composed to be read aloud in church on the saints'
feast-day.
Source: trans. H.R. Musurillo, Actosft hCeh risMtairatny (Orxsfo rd: Clarendon Press, 197p2p.) ,
106-re3pr1. w;i th permission. BHL 6633.
The deeds recounted about the faith in ancient times were a proof of
I.
God's favor and achieved the spiritual strengthening of men as well; and they
were set forth in writing precisely that honor might be rendered to God and
comfort to men by the recollection of the past through the written word.
Should not then more recent examples be set down that contribute equally to
both ends? For indeed these too will one day become ancient and needful for
the ages to come, even though in our own day they may enjoy less prestige
because of the prior claim of antiquity.
Let those then who would restrict the power of the one Spirit to times and
seasons look to this: the more recent events should be considered the greater,
9
