Synopses & Reviews
This is far more than a dry hagiographical account of the lives of saints. This entertaining and authoritative dictionary breathes life into its subjects and is as browsable as it is informative. Critically acclaimed in its many editions, the dictionary is now reissued into the rebranded best-selling Oxford Paperback Reference series.
The entries are concise accounts of the lives, cults, and artistic associations of over 1,400 saints, from the famous to the obscure, the rich to the poor, and the academic to the uneducated. From all walks of life and from all periods of history, the wide varieties of personalities and achievements of the canonized are reflected. Featuring maps of pilgrimage sights in Europe and fully updated appendices, this remains the standard reference paperback in its field.
Recently-added saints include the Martyrs of Korea, Vietnam, and the Spanish Civil War, Andrew of Crete, and Emily Rodat, a female hermit of the 7th century. There are also more Scottish and Irish saints, and ancient Welsh saints; more European saints from all centuries, as well as more saints from Eastern Europe; more recently canonized saints and female saints from the USA.
Review
Review from previous edition: "this delightful array of the good and the incredible is the sort of thing that gives hagiography a good name"--
The Times"Even those who do not believe in the saints...will be able to enjoy and to profit from this splendid book"--The Economist
Synopsis
Fully updated and revised with over 100 new saints, the fifth edition of this well-respected and enjoyed dictionary features concise accounts of the lives, cults, and artistic associations of over 1,400 saints, from the famous to the obscure. This edition includes a new appendix on pilgrimage sights in Europe.
About the Author
David Hugh Farmer, formerly Reader in History at Reading University, is the author or editor of nine books. One of these was
Magna Vita Sancti Hugonis: The Life of St Hugh of Lincoln by Adam of Eynsham, which he edited with Decima L. Douie for the Oxford Medieval Texts series. Others have been in the related fields of monasticism, Bede and his age, and medieval spirituality.
Table of Contents
Introduction Abbreviations
A-Z Dictionary of Saints
Appendices
1. Principal patronages of saints
2. Principal iconographical emblems of saints
Index of places
Calendar of the principal feasts
Patron saints of countries and towns
3. Maps of pilgrimage sites across the world