Description
Book SynopsisIn The Lay Saint, Mary Harvey Doyno investigates the phenomenon of saintly cults that formed around pious merchants, artisans, midwives, domestic servants, and others in the medieval communes of northern and central Italy. Drawing on a wide array of sourcesvitae documenting their saintly lives and legends, miracle books, religious art, and communal recordsDoyno uses the rise of and tensions surrounding these civic cults to explore medieval notions of lay religiosity, charismatic power, civic identity, and the church''s authority in this period.
Although claims about laymen''s and laywomen''s miraculous abilities challenged the church''s expanding political and spiritual dominion, both papal and civic authorities, Doyno finds, vigorously promoted their cults. She shows that this support was neither a simple reflection of the extraordinary lay religious zeal that marked late medieval urban life nor of the Church''s recognition of that enthusiasm. Rather, the histor
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"The Lay Saint offers the first substantive interpretation of the rise, development, and decline of the phenomenon of 'lay sanctity' in medieval Italy. It will become the book on medieval lay sanctity." -- Maureen C. Miller, University of California, Berkeley, author of Clothing the Clergy
"This elegant, appealing book will be one that historians want to grapple with, as it weaves a rich and nuanced portrait of the challenges posed by lay religious life." -- Laura Ackerman Smoller, University of Rochester, author of The Saint and the Chopped-Up Baby
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Creating a Lay Ideal
1. From Charisma to Charity: Lay Sanctity in the Twelfth-Century Communes
2. Charity as Social Justice: The Birth of the Communal Lay Saint
3. Civic Patron as Ideal Citizen: The Cult of Pier "Pettinaio" of Siena
Part Two: The Female Lay Saint
4. Classifying Laywomen: The Female
5. Zita of Lucca: The Outlier
Part Three: From Civic Saint to Lay Visionary
6. Margaret of Cartona: Between Civic Saint and Franciscan Visionary
7. Envisioning an Order: The Last Lay Saints
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
