A Brief History of Saints

A Brief History of Saints follows the rise of the cult of saints in Christianity from its origin in the age of the martyrs down to the present day. Refers to both well-known saints, such as Joan of Arc, and lesser-known figures like the 'holy fools' in the Orthodox tradition Ranges over subjects as diverse as the history of canonization processes, the Reformation critique of the cult of saints, and the role of saints in other religious traditions Discusses the relevance of sainthood in the postmodern era Two appendices describe patron saints and the iconography of saints in art.

List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 1 The Saint: Beginnings 5 Beginnings 8 The Martyrs 11 Literature 13 Veneration 16 After Constantine 18 2 The Bureaucratization of Sanctity 28 Liturgical Memory of the Saints 28 The Saintly Legend 31 Regularizing Sainthood 36 A Test Case: Francis of Assisi 39 The Christian East 44 The Many Meanings of the Saints 46 Pilgrimage 49 Venerating Saints: A Theological Clarification 51 3 Reformations: Protestant and Catholic 54 The Age of the Reformers 54 The Catholic Reformation 61 The New Martyrs 68 The Papal Curia and Canonization 72 The Saints and Scholarship 74 4 Towards the Modern World 78 Worlds Divided 78 New Forms of Religious Life 81 Doctors of the Church 87 The Starets 91 The Tractarians and the Saints 96 5 The Twentieth Century 102 Schools of Spirituality 102 A New Saintliness? 107 The New Martyrs 115 John Paul II: Saints and Evangelization 120 Anglican and Lutheran Calendars 123 6 The Saints, World Religions, and the Future 127 Some Terminology 130 Saints as a Theological Resource 136 Saints and the Continuity of Religious Tradition 139 Appendix I: Patron Saints 148 Appendix II: Iconography of the Saints 151 Notes 155 Select Bibliography 162 Index 169