A cleric in the Middle Ages who, according to his contemporaries, had done such extraordinary things that he could well be canonized or had already been canonized, was described in a life of the saints. We call such a saint’s life a hagiography, which is a biography about the life of a saint. In early Christian times it did not necessarily have to be about a saint, but about someone who had been important for the faith. It is a literary genre and has many different manifestations.
- Description of the life of a saint
- Vita Sturmi
- Saint Surmius also sinful
- Mission Sint Sturmius
- Vita Antoni
- Different genres of hagiographies
- Gospels
- Vitae
- Martyron
- Miracula
- Elevatio/Translatio/Invento
- Revelation
- Bollandists publish Acta Sanctorum
- Jesuits
- Actia Sanctorum
Description of the life of a saint
The word is a combination of sacred (hagio) and writing (grafein). Hagiography is the name given to writing a biography of a saint. The hagiographies that are available provide a very diverse picture of the genre. They can also be used as a historical source, but it should be remembered that it is also a sales pitch for the faith and the saints in question.
Vita Sturmi
Very often the vita is also written by a family member of the saint in question, as in the case of Saint Sturmius and Saint Boniface. This also gives a colored picture of the true nature of the character, there is a tendency to only highlight the good aspects of a person, unless the bad character traits have added value to the story.
Saint Surmius also sinful
In the Vita Sturmi, Saint Sturmius admits to the king that he is not free from sin but that he has never committed a crime against the king. In this case, admitting that he is not free from sin makes him more human and pious because he has overcome his sinfulness and also because he is sinful but not guilty of the crime of which he was accused. However, this is the only sin that Sturmius admits.
Mission Sint Sturmius
The pious Sturmi has no further sins. He is not distracted from his mission, which is to find a suitable place for a monastery, even by a group of naked Slavic people. It is not entirely clear from the story whether they were women or men. And we are not told why he feared them. In any case, he continues to look for a suitable place at great pace. For nine years he has to endure all kinds of hardships in this way alone. This martyrdom shows that the person is worthy of being holy.
Vita Antoni
Describing hagiographies was popular during the Middle Ages and in the Byzantine Empire. The first and most influential hagiographie was the Vita Antonii, which described the life of Anthony of Egypt, the bishop of Alexandria. The work was published in 356 AD. Church Father Augustine, who had converted in 386, knew the work well and used passages from it in his work called Confessions.
It is difficult to indicate which common aspects can be found in the hagiographies because there are so many different genres and because there is always one that deviates from the rules. In principle we can distinguish a number of criteria:
- It is a historical or biographical description of the life of a saint. Usually from the cradle to the grave but sometimes there is no description of youth or the description continues after death;
- The writing is aimed at expressing admiration for the saint. It is a story that must convince the reader how great the hero is and how important true faith is;
- It is a description that is often told in a narrative and entertaining way. Fictional elements are added to the story of someone’s life so that you get, as it were, a legend about the person in question in which miracles are also emphasized;
- Sometimes we also refer to the biography of other (more) famous saints or to Bible stories.
Different genres of hagiographies
Various genres of biography can be distinguished. One is really a description of life, the other is more about the elevation of the saint to a true hero through a legend. Sometimes it is more of a description of all the hardships that the saint has had to endure and that he or she died for the faith, etc. Roughly speaking, the following categories can be distinguished.
Gospels
The New Testament Gospels could be considered the first early Christian biographies. They are not vitae because a description of the youth is often missing.
Vitae
The biography of a saint. In early Christian times, the lives of other people who were important to the Christian faith but who were not canonized, such as the Roman emperor Constantine, were also described. The oldest biography of a saint is called prima vita.
Martyron
This is a story that describes the martyrdom or death of the saint. While in the early versions the emphasis on martyrdom was more on violence and a violent death, in the Middle Ages it becomes more a kind of martyrdom of abstinence. This involves abstaining from worldly pleasures and withdrawing oneself into the wilderness and the suffering that arises from this. As also described in the previously mentioned Vita Sturmi.
Miracula
A description that mainly emphasizes all kinds of miraculous events during the life or after the death of the saint. This was often written as a supplement to the actual biography. One of the miracles that happens to Boniface is that the Archangel Michael appears to him to show him the ideal place for a monastery church. When he wanted to stay there to eat but there was nothing to eat, a miracle ensured that he and his companions could still eat there.
Elevatio/Translatio/Invento
Stories about the reburial of sacred bones in a specially made place such as an altar or a reliquary. The transfer of the bones to another place or the discovery of the bones of a saint.
Revelation
That is a testimony about the observation of a miracle in connection with a sacred or holy place. The appearance of the Archangel Michael to Boniface to show him the right place for the church is not only a miracle but also an example of a revelation, revelatio.
Bollandists publish Acta Sanctorum
Source: Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
When describing hagiography, the origins of the Bollandists should not be left undiscussed. Bollandists are named after Jean Bolland who, alongside Godfried Henskens and the one who took the first step, Herbert Rosweyde, made it their life’s work to study and describe the lives of the saints.
Jesuits
They were members of the Jesuit order, a religious order within the Catholic Church. They resolved to approach the biographies critically, to detect forgeries and to publish the hagiographies in their most authentic form. We call the study of holy lives hagiology. Henskens and Daniel van Papenbroeck traveled to Germany, Italy and France in search of source materials.
Actia Sanctorum
The collection of the holy lives was called Acta Sanctorum and was published in their own journal Acta Bollandiana in 1643.