3. Hagiography
Hagiography
One key way the cults of saints were disseminated was through the composition of hagiography that was then copied, read, and performed (Palmer; Kreiner).
Hagiography had its earlier traditions in the emulation of Christ as depicted in the Gospels, the Apostles as in the New Testament and other early Christian writings, and the early accounts of martyrs.
Stories of saints’ lives (in Latin, always singular: vita), miracles (miracula), and passions (passiones) usually detailed the childhood, miraculous events, good works, careers, and deaths of the subjects. Hagiography functioned to disseminate Christianity and to provide a model for imitation by the Christian congregation.
However, the imitation must be appropriate. Let us remember to the example of Vulfolaic from before:
"It is not right, what you are trying to do! Such an obscure person as you can never be compared with Simeon the Stylite of Antioch!"
How did hagiography help spread saints’ cults?
Hagiographies may be composed soon after the saint’s death; they may have been written by someone from the saint’s monastery; or they may have been commissioned by a patron, such as a bishop. A patron may want a hagiography in order to enhance the prestige of the diocese or church buildings if certain relics were kept there (Van Egmond).
Hagiographies were then incorporated into the liturgy through sermons and may have been read at feast days. Devoted pilgrims may have heard hagiographies when they travelled to touch the Very Special Dead and pray at their tombs (Brown; . Copies of saints’ lives may also have been kept at shrines, as is depicted in one account about the tomb of St Nicetius of Lyon:
Agiulf visits the tomb of Nicetius of Lyon (Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers, 8.6)
| Agiulfus quoque diaconus noster a Roma veniens, beata nobis sanctorum pignora deferebat. Hic causa orationis tantum locum quo sanctus quiescit adivit, ingressusque aedem, dum diversorum miraculorum opus inlustre perpendit, vidit inmensum catervatim populum ad eius sepulchrum ac velut felicium examina apium ad consuetum alveare confluere, et alios, presbitero qui aderat ministrante, particulas caerae pro benedictione sumere, alios parumper pulveris, nonnullos disruptes ab operturio eius fimbrias capere et abire, ferentes in disparibus causis unam gratiam sanitatis. | Agiulf, our deacon, returned from Rome and brought us the blessed relics (pignora) of the saints. On his return home he passed by the place where this saint [Nicetius] rested, and stopped to say prayers. He entered the building and examined the famous register of the various miracles which had been done there. Then he saw an immense crowd of people near the tomb, buzzing around like a swarm of happy bees around their familiar hive, some taking from the priest in attendance pieces of wax as holy objects (pro benedictione), others a little dust (pulveris), and others plucked and went away with a few threads from the fringe of the tomb-covering (ab operturio eius fimbria), all thus carrying off for different purposes the same grace of health. |
| Ed: Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2, Hannover: 1885, p. 246 | Trans: James, Life of the Fathers, TTH, Liverpool: 1991, pp. 56–57, edited. |
What might have been contained in this register? Could it have been a hagiography of Nicetius of Lyon?