A Companion to Medieval Canonization Processes - (Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume scrutinizes the inquiries into the life and miracles of a saintly candidate. It focuses on canonization processes' judicial background, structural elements as well as devotional aspects reflected in the depositions. It illuminates the state-of-the-art and topical themes within the field.

Book Synopsis

Canonizations, which officially proclaimed a person's sanctity, were complex, embracing theological, judicial, social, and cultural aspects of medieval Christianity. The dossiers manifest the theological ponderings while also revealing the devotional practices, daily life, and troubles of those not learned in canon law or theology.

This volume offers tools for comprehending canonization processes by investigating their judicial background and structural elements, as well as devotional aspects reflected in the depositions. It approaches canonization processes in a three-fold way: as a phenomenon of the past, as a source material with methodological challenges, and as a specific field of historical studies. Furthermore, this volume engages in innovative methodological discussions and illuminates the state-of-the-art and topical new themes.


Contributors include: Christian Krötzl, Maria Teresa Fattori, Didier Lett, Saku Pihko, Jenni Kuuliala, Nicole Archambeau, Adelheid Russenberger, Jyrki Nissi, Laura Ackerman Smoller, Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Marika Räsänen, and Jonathan Greenwood.

About the Author

Sari Katajala-Peltomaa is currently Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku, Finland. She has specialized in lived religion, gender, and family. Her recent publications on canonization processes include Demonic Possession and Lived Religion in Later Medieval Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020) and edited with Christian Krötzl, Miracles in Medieval Canonization Processes: Structures, Functions, and Methodologies (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018).