An Anthology of Translated Texts
Illustrative of the History of the Cult of the
Saints
Edited by Thomas Head
Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Note: These translations are works in progress, subject to updating
and change. They are listed in rough chronological order. They are placed
here for the use of fellow researchers and students. They may be reproduced
for private use, but may not be reproduced for publication. Any comments
on or corrections to these translations are welcomed at thead@shiva.hunter.cuny.edu.
Any questions concerning their use may also be posted at that address.
A much more extensive anthology of hagiographic sources in English translation
now available on the WWW has been edited by Paul Halsall of the University
of North Florida: Internet
Medieval Sourcebook: Saints' Lives. Interested students of hagiography
will certainly wish to consult it in addition to the highly focused selection
of texts presented here. The student may also wish to consult the on-line
page
of articles and bibliographies which I have edited as part of ORB (On-Line
Research Book of Medieval Studies).
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In 386, Bishop Ambrose of Milan discovered the relics of the martyrs Gervasius
and Protasius. He placed those relics in a basilica located in central
part of the city which he had originally intended as his own mortuary chapel.
He thus, in a sense, inaugurated the building of churches as shrines to
the relics of the saints within the cities of the western Roman empire.
He described the event in a letter
to his sister.
-
The prologue to Huneberc of Heidenheim's Hodoeporicon
of St. Willibald. The text provides a woman's elaborate justification
for acting as the author of a hagiographic text, dating from the third
quarter of the eighth century.
-
Excerpts from Bertholdus of Micy's Life
of St. Maximinus,
the story of the founding abbot of Micy, located near Orléans, composed
in the early ninth century. The text provides typical methods and goals
in the mind of a hagiographer of the Carolingian period.
-
Letter of Bishop
Amulo of Lyon
describing the "misuse" of relics in the town of Dijon during the mid-ninth
century.
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An attack on the veneration of relics from Claudius of Turin's Apology.
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Excerpts from Theodoric of St. Eucharius' Discovery
of the Relics of St. Celsus. The discovery, orchestrated by Archbishop
Egbert of Trier (pictured here in an illumination from a contemporary manuscript
commissioned by Egbert himself) occurred at an abbey outside Trier in 978.

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Letaldus of Micy's Journey
of the Relics of St. Junianus, including a description of the Peace
Council of Charroux in 989.
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The description of the discovery of the relics of John the Baptist at Saint-Jean-d'Angély
in 1016, from Ademar of Chabanne's Chronicle.
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The description of the Peace League of Bourges and its campaign in 1038,
from Andrew of Fleury's Miracles
of St. Benedict.
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A description of the burial of a hermit, named Gregory of Nicopolis, who
was viewed as a saint. The text, from the anonymous Life
of St. Gregory, was composed in the early eleventh century in the
region of Pithiviers, a castle near Orléans.
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A story about the relics of a hermit, named Romuald of Ravenna, told by
Peter Damian in his Life
of Romuald. A contemporary of Romuald's, Peter was a fiercely ascetic
monk who became prominent as a member of the reforming circle around Pope
Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy.
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A Miracle of
St. Maximinus provides an unusually extensive description of the
pilgrimage and miraculous cure of a single individual. It was composed
in the third quarter of the eleventh century. The text comes from the abbey
of Micy, near Orléans and was written in the third quarter of the
eleventh century.
-
In the first book of his On
the Relics of the Saints, Guibert of Nogent provided a full, if
haughty consideration of the contemporary cult of relics from a clerical
point of view.
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In the prologue to his Life,
Translation, and Miracles of St. Sacerdos, Hugh of Fleury discussed
his methodology as a hagiographer and historian reconstructing the life
of a long dead saint.