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.
Table of Content
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
About the author
Lawrence S. Cunningham is John O’Brien Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University. He is the author or editor of many books, including The Sacred Quest: An Invitation to the Study of Religion (2001), Christian Spirituality (1996), Ecumenism (1990), and The Catholic Faith: An Introduction (1987). His previous works on sainthood include biographies of Thomas Merton and Saint Francis of Assisi. He has won three Catholic Press Association awards for his religious writing and numerous teaching awards.
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