Medieval Miracle Accounts as Stories

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of miracle accounts were recorded in the Middle Ages, and recent generations of scholars have analysed them to illuminate the social realities of the medieval cult of the saints. Another approach is to explore these accounts as narratives, and this article sugge...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bartlett, Robert 1950- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage [2017]
In: Irish theological quarterly
Year: 2017, Volume: 82, Issue: 2, Pages: 113-127
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Miracle story / Hagiography / History 1100-1420
IxTheo Classification:KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages
KAF Church history 1300-1500; late Middle Ages
KCD Hagiography; saints
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of miracle accounts were recorded in the Middle Ages, and recent generations of scholars have analysed them to illuminate the social realities of the medieval cult of the saints. Another approach is to explore these accounts as narratives, and this article suggests three ways of doing this: by placing them on a scale between the more literary, which are intended to celebrate the saint generally, and the more determinedly probative or forensic, which are concerned to demonstrate the veracity of the miracle by formal means, such as the naming of witnesses; by looking at the narrative motifs which recur in miracle accounts; and by subjecting such accounts to close readings of the kind employed when analysing fiction.
ISSN:1752-4989
Contains:Enthalten in: Irish theological quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0021140017689996