The Lady as Saint: A Collection of French Hagiographic Romances of the Thirteenth Century

by Brigitte Cazelles

Among the thirteenth-century saints exalted are female martyrs and hermits of early Christianity. In The Lady as Saint , Brigitte Cazelles offers the first English translation of these lives and provides extensive commentary on the portrayal of female spirituality.

344 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 1991

Reviews

[M F]

2016:

I love when the last thirty pages of a book are just references / the index. It's like, "YASSS. I'M DONE."

Anyway.

A summary of pretty much all of these romances:

Pretty young girl is super Christian. Somebody wants to marry her. Her father thinks this is a good idea, she doesn't, because she's married to Jesus. Her dad or future husband or both then beat her and torture her because that always makes a girl want to get married. She survives bc divine intervention. People are converted by this, which only makes the dad or future husband even angrier, so then she gets killed. Her corpse does miracles.

There are occasional exceptions where people actually do things other than dying. But this is basically it.

2017:

Apparently my past self wasn't very impressed with these, based on the above review and also my incredibly sarcastic marginalia. On the plus side, reading the same edition meant I was constantly cracking up at my remarks from last year because, of course, I have the exact same sense of humour as myself and they made me laugh.

[Lulu]

[EUPHROSINA; Early 13th ( could as early as 1200)]


A. Martyrs

AGNES
Rome; circa 304. BHL, I: 27-28
Gesta Sanctae Agnes, attributed to Ambrosius (sixth century)
AgnesA: before 1250
Cleric (near Laon, Northern France)

BARBARA
Nicomedia (Bithynia, Asia Minor); no date. BHL, I: 142-46 Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine (thirteenth century) Late thirteenth century (district o f Hainault)

CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
Alexandria (Egypt); no date. BHL, I: 25 1- 5 5 Vulgata (mid-eleventh century)
Catherine B: thirteenth century
"Gui"

CHRISTINA
Bolsena (Latium); no date. BHL, I: 264-66
Acta Urbevenata
Between 1214-1218
Gautier de Coinci (Benedictine monk at Vic-sur-Aisne, near Soissons)

FAITH
Agen (France); circa 303. BHL, I: 44-1-44-
Passions in sixth- and seventh-century prose, and in eleventh-century
verse
1205-1210
Simon ofWalsingham (Benedictine monk at Bury St. Edmunds)

JULIANA
Nicomedia; third century. BHL, I: 670-71 Vita composed around 568
Early thirteenth century

MARGARET OF ANTIOCH
Antioch; no date. BHL, 2: 787-88 Tenth-century Vita (ed. Mombritius) Margaret G: thirteenth century Norman and Picard linguistic traits


B. Hermits

EUPHROSINA
Alexandria; fifth century (?). BHL, I: 408-09 Vitae Patrum
Early thirteenth century ( could as early as 1200)
Benedictine monk (northern France)

MARINA
Bithynia;earlyfifthcentury.BHL,2: 813 Vitae Patrum
End of the thirteenth century

MARY THE EGYPTIAN
Alexandria; fifth century. BHL, 2: 801-02
Seventh-century Greek version attributed to Sophronios; many Latin
adaptations
MaryB: between 124-8-1277
Rutebeuf (Parisian lay cleric)

THAIS
Egypt; mid-fourth century. BHL, 2: 1160-6 1 Vitae Patrum
Thais C: after 1250
Probably from Champagne


C. Married women

PAULA
Born in Rome around 34-5; married Toxotius who left her a widow at
33 years ofage, with five children; with her daughter Eustochium, followed St. Jerome to the Holy Land in 38 5; died in Bethlehem in 4-04. BHL, 2: 950.
Fifth-century account by St. Jerome (PL, 22: 878-906) Around 1290

ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
Daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, she was born in 1207 at
Bratislava; was married to the landgrave ofThuringia, Ludwig IV, in 122 1; died at Marburg in 123 1 and was canonized in 12 35.BHL,
I: 373-77
Thirteenth-century accounts by Cesarius of Heisterbach and Thierry
ofApoldia; trial ofcanonization Elizabeth A: between 125 8- 1270 Rutebeuf (Parisian, lay cleric)


Also Pop joan: Jean de Mailly Chronica Universalis Mettensis (1254) the first mention of an unnamed female pope and inspired several more accounts over the next several years. The most popular and influential version is that interpolated into
Martin of Opava Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum (1278) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_...