A SHORTR EADEORF M EDIEVASLA INTS READINIGNSM EDIEVCAILV ILIZAATNIDOC NUSL TURXEISI: sereideisPt aoEurdl:w radD utton A SHORTR EADER OFM EDIEVASLA INTS edited by MARY-ANN STOUCK lrrP T}n�vo-:frT soirtoPynr teos s Copyright© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2009 www.utphighereducation.com All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher - or in the case of photocopying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M5E IE5 - is an infringement of the copyright law. 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 We welcome comments and suggestions regarding any aspect of our publications -­ please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or visit our internet site at www.utphighereducation.com. NorAtmhe rica UK,I relaancndod n,t iEnuernotpael 5201 Dufferin Street NBN International Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T8 Estover Road, Plymouth, PL6 7PY, UK 44 (o) 1752 202301 TEL: 2250 Military Road FAX ORDER LINE: 44 (o) 1752 202333 Tonawanda, New York, USA, 14150 [email protected] ORDERS PHONE: 1-800-565-9523 ORDERS FAX:I- 800-221-9985 ORDERS EMAIL: [email protected] This book is printed on paper containing 100% post-consumer fibre. The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Develop­ ment Program (BPIDP). Book design and composition by George Kirkpatrick. 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