Sacred Biography Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages [Paperback]

Though medieval saints' lives are among the oldest literary texts of Western vernacular culture, they are routinely patronized as pious fiction by modern historiography. This book demonstrates that to characterize the genre as fiction is to misunderstand the intentions of medieval authors, who were neither credulous fools nor men blinded by piety. Concentrating on English texts, Heffernan reconstructs the medieval perspective and considers sacred biography in relation to the community for which it was written; identifies the genre's rhetorical practices and purposes; and demonstrates the syncretistic way in which the life of the medieval saint was transformed from oral tales to sacred text. In the process, Heffernan not only achieves a more contextually accurate understanding of the medieval saints' lives, but details a new critical method that has important implications for the practice of textual criticism.

With this splendid book, Heffernan offers a provocative reassessment of the nature and importance of medieval saints' lives. Arguing that modern scholarship, bound by its historical-critical methodology, has not understood the underlying principles of this genre, the author focuses on the goals and assumptions, intended audience, and rhetorical and literary characteristics of what he terms 'sacred biography.'...For those interested in understanding the mentality of the Middle Ages through its most popular form of religious writing, this book offers a perfect entry. Highly recommended. --Choice

Heffernan has read widely and reflectively in the vast field of medieval hagiography and given us a book on the subject that probes deeply the nature of the documents and the vagaries of our response to them. --Church History

This excellent book attempts to bridge the gulf separating medieval from modern sensibility with regard to issues of authority and judgment in biographical writing....Logical, thorough, and welllƒ(