Invention of Saintliness

Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History and Medieval Studies at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). Her wide-ranging publications on historiography, hagiography and Gender Studies include Sanctity and Motherhood (Garland, 1995), De Kluizenaar in de Eik (The Hermit in the Oak, 1995), and Gouden Legenden (Golden Legend, 1998). She is presently preparing a book on Anchoresses in the Low Countries.

'The volume comprises, in short, a series of carefully nuanced investigations as to the roles that texts, individuals, social groups and institutions played in developing the conceptual framework of the cult of saints before the process of saint-making was subjected to effective control from above.'- Ecclesiastical History, Volume 57'Newcomers to the subject and students embarking on dissertations will find the book eminently useful for the purpose of defining their own research questions.'- Paul Hayward, University of Lancaster'Its great virue is the succinct way in which it defines issues central to the field.'- Paul Hayward, University of Lancaster

• Part I: IntroductionPart II: Contexts: the Cult of Saints and the Invention of SaintlinessPart III: Texts: the Lives of Saints and the Invention of Saintliness