| In this dissertation I introduce a new critical term, hagiographic rhetoric, which describes how medieval English authors deployed the legacies of saints for additional purposes beyond promoting piety or encouraging devotion to a particular saint. I further explain this term in my introduction and note how subtexts have always pervaded the hagiographic genre, whether these were written for political, social, economic, or ecclesiastical purposes. The subsequent chapters examine how hagiographic rhetoric was applied by three monks from different eras of medieval English history. I first examine Ælfric of Eynsham, who in his late tenth-century homiletic work The Lives of the Saintsdeployed the narratives of a variety of saints to create national solidarity among England’s Christians in the face of the Danish Viking invasions. Secondly, I explore the late twelfth-century work of Thomas of Monmouth, who with the blessing of his monastic superiors,created a vita for a recently murdered boy, William of Norwich, whose death was blamed on local Jews. While this text has traditionally been understood principally as an antisemitic work, I show that there is strong evidence suggesting that Thomas’s primary purpose in creating The Life and Passion of William of Norwichwas to generate pilgrim interest in the fledgling Norwich Cathedral.In the third chapter, I examine the late fourteenth century work of John Mirk, who refuted heretical Lollard ideas both directly and obliquely in his Festialcollection of
ixhomilies to reinforce orthodoxy in the minds of his parishioners. His inclusion of saints’ tales in his sermons were specifically adapted to show that Lollard notions against the efficacy of the cult of the saints and all its attendant practices were refutedby true accounts of saintly intervention and miracles in specific holy spaces. The final chapter of this dissertation discusses the pedagogical implications of teaching hagiography in the college classroom, and provides a tiered methodology for improving hagiographical literacy among students before introducing concepts of hagiographic rhetoric. An appendix shows how unfamiliarity and potential resistance from Latter-day Saint students about medieval concepts can be addressed to increase textual understanding of ideas about saints and hagiography.Key Words: hagiography, rhetoric, hagiographic rhetoric, saints, saint-veneration |