Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of Western Christendom, 1000-1700

By Rudolph M. Bell and Donald Weinstein

Book Overview

In Saints and Society, Donald Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell examine the lives of 864 saints who lived between 1000 and 1700 and the perceptions of sanctity prevalent in late medieval and early modern Europe. They also provide a substantial body of information on the people among whom the saints lived and by whom they came to be venerated. In the first part, the authors give close consideration to what the saints' lives reveal about childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; the impact of religious inspiration upon family bonds; and family influences upon religious behavior. The second part provides a composite picture of piety and its changing configuration in Latin Christendom. With the assistance of statistical analysis, the authors answer questions involving the popular perception of holiness, social class, and gender.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226890562
• ISBN13: 9780226890562
• Release Date: June 1986
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 321 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Hagiography and social/cultural study

This work takes into account that the study of Medieval hagiography (stories and veneration of saints) helps us get a glimpse of social trends and values in medieval Europe. I have a great interest in medieval European culture, especially daily life aspects. I took a course on Medieval saints at Columbia Univeristy, and Saints & Society was one of the recommended books on the syllabus. Before I read this book, I had never thought much about looking to medieval saints stories as a way of learning about medieval society; in my mind, sacred and secular were kept separate, however these things were more closely wedded in medieval culture. As this book points out, Medieval tellings of saints' stories often include elements from the writer's daily life (role of women, care of children, relationships within a community). This book examines a variety of saints' legends in order to draw conclusions about the tellers' culture. Quite interesting. It has definitely awakened my interest in hagiography, which I now think should be as closely wedded to general medieval studies as the sacred was to daily life in the Middle Ages.