Gender, Miracles, and Daily Life

Book excerpt: Interaction with the saints was central to the everyday life of medieval Christians. The process of praying to a heavenly intercessor not only involved private devotion but was also intrinsically connected with society at large. It required the individual to communicate and negotiate both with the saint and within a group of devotees, thereby exposing social processes such as community dynamics and the construction of gender. Considering these issues and others, Gender, Miracles, and Daily Life focuses on the depositions of the canonization processes of Thomas Cantilupe (1307) and Nicholas of Tolentino (1325). It explores how ordinary laypeople understood the daily responsibilities that determined their relationship to the saints and articulates how their shared narratives contributed to the rituals which surrounded a miracle. This material has been little explored by scholars, yet offers a vivid and colourful insight into the world of men and women in the fourteenth century.