Thesis advisor: Stephen Brown / Although hagiography and sermons from the Middle Ages are abundant, little research exists that explores the relationship between these two genres. Jacobus de Voragine compiled the most renowned medieval collection of hagiography, Legenda aurea (Golden Legend). He also compiled several volumes of model sermons, including a volume on the saints, sermones de sanctis. This dissertation examines four saints who appear in both of these works: Mary Magdalene, Benedict, Nicholas and Peter Martyr. By writing his hagiography and sermons, Jacobus attempted to guide Christians toward lives of virtue and ultimate union with God. In particular, Jacobus relied on tropological and anagogical reading of Scriptures in order to communicate how Christians should behave and what they should anticipate in eternity. In his work on two of these saints, Mary Magdalene and Benedict, Jacobus relied on the framework of spiritual ascent to God described by Pseudo-Dionysius. In particular, Jacobus focused on the first stage of ascent, the purgative. A link between the hagiography and sermons sometimes can be found in the etymological introductions in the Golden Legend. In the sermons on Mary Magdalene and Peter Martyr, Jacobus follows the virtues found in the etymology in the hagiography, while for Nicholas and Benedict, the correspondence is not as faithful. Nevertheless, throughout his sermons on the saints, Jacobus refers to episodes described more fully in the Golden Legend. Jacobus intended preachers to use stories from the Golden Legend to punctuate and illustrate the more theological content presented in the model sermons. If Jacobus's work is indicative of larger trends in medieval preaching, preachers expected to utilize hagiographical resources in order to urge their listeners to the virtuous life and an eschatological union with God. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101407 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Hevelone, Suzanne |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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