Constructing Sanctity in the Long Twelfth Century: The Miracles of St. Anselm, St. Bernard and St. Francis
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Fletcher, Sam
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
- Abstract
- Miracles were a key feature of the religious life of the High Middle Ages. As such they played an important role in constructing, creating and enacting medieval notions of sanctity. This thesis analyzes the ways in which three different saints – St. Anselm, St. Bernard and St. Francis – performed miracles. It aims to show how their miracles differed, what claims the saints made about their own sanctity through their miracles, and more broadly what the miracles show concerning the religious movements of which the three saints were emblematic figures. The key question is: How did the miraculous contribute to the sanctity of St. Anselm, St. Bernard and St. Francis? This thesis intersects with a number of different areas of scholarship. Primarily it is a study of sanctity but viewed through the lens of the miraculous. To analyze the miracles, the idea of performativity will be drawn on, and finally, because each of the saints this thesis deals with are significant enough to warrant their own fields of study, it intersects with the biographical work on Anselm, Bernard and Francis. The novelty of this study primarily derives from the fact that no historians have applied the ideas developed by Judith Butler to the study of traditional – Great-Men – figures of history.
- Date of publication
- spring 2016
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Bull, Marcus
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 73
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