THE STORY OF AN ENGLISH SAINT'S CULT: AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF ST AETHELTHRYTH OF ELY, c.670 -c.1540 (original) (raw)
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2019
This thesis charts the history of the cult of St AEthelthryth of Ely, arguing that its longevity and geographical extent were determined by the malleability of her character, as narrated within the hagiographical texts of her life, and the continued promotion of her shrine by parties interested in utilising her saintly power to achieve their goals. Arranged chronologically and divided into five distinct periods, the thesis demonstrates that this symbiotic relationship was key in maintaining and elongating the life of the cult. Employing digital humanities tools to analyse textual, archaeological, material, cartographic, and documentary sources covering the cult’s eight-hundred-year history, the study charts its development firstly within East Anglia, and subsequently across the whole country, and internationally. Several spheres of the saint’s influence are defined, revealing a number of potential short- and long-distance pilgrimage routes focussed on locations with links to AEthelt...
Saintly Bodies, Cult, and Ecclesiastical Identity in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria
Saint lives, their bodies, and the development of cult were integral towards establishing Northumbrian ecclesiastical identity during the Anglo-Saxon period. In this article, I argue that the saint cults of Cuthbert and Oswald of Northumbria effectively established ecclesiastical identity through their relics, hagiographical accounts, and the promotion of their cults through kingly and lay interaction. While the ecclesiastical community regarded Cuthbert as a model of ascetic practice and contemplation, however, they viewed Oswald as a warrior king who died for his faith. Firstly, I examine the diffusion and distribution of saintly relics, which helped to create relationships between the saint and the individual, encouraging cult growth through miraculous occurrences and intimacy with the saint. Secondly, the clergy’s commission of hagiographical texts further supported the distribution of relics, benefitting the image of the saint and their church. Favourable portrayals of the saints, such as Bede’s interpretation of Oswald and Cuthbert, promoted their ecclesiastical centres and relics. Thirdly, regal and lay involvement enabled cult development, allowing for active involvement with the church and endowing the cults with wealth and authority. Through these three approaches in literature, history, and material culture, I illustrate how Cuthbert and Oswald helped to shape ecclesiastical identity in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria.
2014
Pilgrimage to shrine centres in medieval England was a significant event for the community to undertake, as well as an important source of income for the shrine itself. The level of interest that a shrine could generate was dependent upon a variety of factors, stemming from both the saint's actions and the establishment of their political and familial networks when they were alive, and the efforts of the clergy administering the shrine and popularising the relics after their death. This study investigates the sphere of influence of a shrine, using a detailed analysis of the lives and cults of Saints Oswald and Wulfstan of Worcester as a case study. An analysis of the manuscripts written celebrating the saints' lives has been combined with data detailing the foundations and church dedications with links to Worcester, locations of the saints' relics, material culture related to them, and details of their documented miracles to build a picture of the geographical extent of their influence, and the longevity of their cults. Using this variety of both archaeological and historical sources, this interdisciplinary study builds a methodology which can subsequently be applied to other shrine centres to compare their influence on the medieval community. 4 Ian Styler 1217360 2 As an example, Diana Webb describes how Richard II undertook several pilgrimage tours of the West Country in the early fourteenth century, taking in amongst others the shrines at Gloucester, Worcester, Tewkesbury and Evesham (D. Webb, Pilgrimage in Medieval England (Cambridge, 2000), p. 134). 3 Ute Engel interprets the establishment of Thomas Cantilupe's shrine at Hereford in the late thirteenth century as being in direct competition with the Worcester shrines (U. Engel, Worcester Cathedral: An Architectural History (Chichester, 2007), p. 199). 4 The accounts of Worcester Priory show receipts of 13s. 4d. from 'offerings to the tombs of saints Oswald and Wulfstan' for the years 1515/16. Worcester Cathedral Archive, Miscellaneous Volumes. AXII, f. 41, (1515/16).
The Early English Cult of Saints in Long-Term Perspective
The Long Seventh Century: Continuity and Discontinuity in an Age of Transition, ed. Alessandro Gnasso, Emanuele E. Intagliata, Thomas J. MacMaster, and Bethan N. Morris (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015), 39–59., 2015
This paper explores the seventh-century conversion of England through the lens of the cult of saints by examining the documentary and archaeological evidence for the treatment of the dead in long-term perspective. Taking inspiration from recent studies of Scandinavia that have envisioned Old Norse religion as a number of different and changing religious customs that constantly incorporated and reinterpreted foreign models, I argue that England witnessed a generations-long transitional phase c.400–900ce, during which links to the ancestral past were actively renegotiated within the new political and religious environments brought on by the rise of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the gradual conversion of their peoples to Christianity. Our extant historical accounts of these centuries suggest a major discontinuity between the pagan ways of the early Anglo-Saxons and the adoption of Christianity beginning in the late-sixth century; the veneration of saints at their tombs in seventh-century England is thus usually seen as an entirely new phenomenon. Yet Christianity was neither the first nor the only religion in Britain to have encouraged engagement with the physical remains of the special dead. Indeed, each of the key material elements of the medieval cult of saints (primary relics, translation, secondary relics, and depositio ad sanctos) had local, and often very ancient antecedents. Excavated cemeteries in Britain have produced evidence for the curation of body parts, reopening and manipulation of graves, preservation of heirloom objects, and burial in close proximity to the tombs of revered individuals stretching as far back as the Neolithic. This paper therefore argues for a considerable degree of continuity in the treatment of the “special dead” in seventh-century England, during which pre-Christian hero cults and practices of ancestor veneration fused with the imported cult of the saints to create a new Christian synthesis.