Abstract
The starting points for this book are late medieval imitatio Christi and
the valorization of pain, and their importance for saints’ lives. It presents
gender and dis/ability as vital concepts for such analysis. Bodily suffering
has been seen as a definitive factor for female saint’s cults; while this
book does not question these conclusions, it stresses the importance
of the ambiguity of gender as a historical category and in defining the
characteristics of a saint’s cult, and approaches dis/ability as a cultural
construct incorporating positive connotations of certain bodily variations.
The introduction also discusses source-critical aspects that must be taken
into account when using medieval canonization processes for the study
of saints’ lives and the accounts of contemporary witnesses.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press