Academic & Crossref DOI Search

Abstract: The cult of saints crossed global horizons as part of the spread of Roman Catholicism that began in the late 15th century with the maritime expeditions of Catholic Portugal and Spain. ‘Globalizing sanctity’ explains that the most successful seedbed of sainthood was the Americas, where the Church received most patronage when it operated as a colonial government ideological arm, working to pacify and economically exploit the Amerindian natives. Why did the indigenous people adopt their Christian oppressors’ religion and what part did saints play? A fundamental feature of Catholic world mission was syncretism, mixing elements of two sets of religious belief and meaning through the adaptation of symbols and practices culturally accommodating to both.

Abstract: This chapter argues that monasticism is central to understanding the patterns of kinship in early medieval Europe. It examines the passing of an aristocratic consciousness bound to the disintegrating late antique civic order and the formation of a new consciousness flowing from rural centers of power buttressed by estate-laden monasticism during the Merovingian period. The contention is supported with an examination of the rejection of the worldly family in late Roman monasticism and the celebration of the natal family in seventh-century monasticism, as that transformation appears in portrayals of parentage in hagiographical literature. This distinctive conception of kinship was propelled by a dynamic, Augustinian notion of kinship which bound patron families and monasteries to one another, and to the eternal family of God. The chapter ends with an examination of late seventh-century hagiographical works which explicitly embedded a saint’s natal and marital families within the familia Christi.

Abstract: This chapter looks at important aspects of Jonas of Bobbio’s hagiography in relation to the broader political and social changes of the seventh century. The chapter deals with the writing and the use of hagiography in the political sphere and with the increasing prominence of the Frankish aristocracy in hagiographic texts from this period. It also traces the growing alliance between the monasteries and the secular authorities during this time and explores changing ideas in relation to sanctity whereby there is an increasing focus on the sacredness of the monastic community and institution rather than on individual, charismatic holy men.