Synopses & Reviews
This book explores the development of the cult of the saints in western Europe between c.400 and 1000 AD. The main emphasis is upon Anglo-Saxon England, post-Roman Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but there are important contributions on Francia and on western Europe as a whole. No other volume combines such a broad geographical spread with such a wide range of disciplines and approaches - textual, archaeological, genealogical, onomastic, as well as historical. Veneration of innumerable local saints and martyrs is one of the defining characteristics of early medieval society. This book looks at how such saints came to be recognized and how they were enshrined, the circumstances in which they proliferated, and the factors leading to the development of their often extremely localized cults. Throughout, the aim is to emphasize the pan-European context, to place insular developments in a wider continuum extending from Ireland through to Rome and Byzantium. The volume combines wide-ranging surveys providing fundamental orientation on a variety of core subjects, with crucial reference material (including a handlist of all known Anglo-Saxon saints). It will be indispensable to all interested in Early Britain and Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England and to the culture of early medieval Europe as a whole.
Review
"...an excellent research and reference tool as well as useful addition to the study of the development of saints' cults in Ireland and the British Isles in their European context in the early Middle Ages."--Speculum
Table of Contents
1. Loca Sanctorum: The Significance of Place in the Study of the Saints,
Alan Thacker2. The Making of a Local Saint, Alan Thacker
3. Martyrs and Local Saints in Late Antique Britain, Richard Sharpe
4. Constructing Cults in Early Medieval France: Local Saints and Churches in Burgundy and the Auvergne 400-1000, Ian Wood
5. The Enshrinement of Local Saints in Merovingian and Carolingian Francia, John Crook
6. Celtic Saints and Early Medieval Archaeology, Nancy Edwards
7. Érlam: The Patron Saint of an Irish Minster, Thomas Charles-Edwards
8. Irish Saints' Cults and Ecclesiastical Families, Pádraig Ó Riain
9. Local Saints and Place-Names in Cornwall, Oliver Padel
10. The Saints of South Wales and the Welsh Church, John Reuben Davies
11. Scottish Saints and National Identities in the Early Middle Ages, Thomas Owen Clancy
12. Universal and Local Saints in Anglo-Saxon England, Catherine Cubitt
13. A Saint for Every Minster? Local Cults in Anglo-Saxon England, John Blair
A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints, John Blair
Index