THE HISTORIAN AND THE SAINTS

Catalog description

This course will explore hagiography (saints’ Lives or vitae) from its inception in the Early Church to the Renaissance. Students will read a number of saints’ lives from across this period with the main focus on medieval vitae. As a unique genre of writing, these documents can provide insights into social and cultural ideas, historical events, and the changing tastes and expectations of medieval societies. The class will consider the use of these documents as historical sources and explore both the possibilities and the problems for doing so. It will also explore how different texts can be and remain in the same genre. Besides the primary sources, the class will read and discuss seminal works in this subfield of medieval history. Prerequisites: HIST 101 and HIST 102.