The Collected Saints’ Lives combines in one volume the four sacred biographies written by the thirteenth-century hagiographer Thomas of Cantimpré (c. 1200–c. 1265/70). The Lives document the deeds of four individuals who had a powerful effect on local communities and inspired profound spiritual changes in the people who listened to their teachings and witnessed their miracles.
The “Life of Abbot John of Cantimpré” is the only text newly translated into English. The other three Lives have previously been translated, annotated, and published by Margot King as three separate volumes in the Peregrina Translation Series. Despite the availability of these previous editions, Newman’s new volume is a welcome replacement. Although the Peregrina Translation Series is a valuable resource for low-cost translations of neglected texts, the volumes themselves are more pamphlet than book, bound with only cardstock and staples, but not so Newman’s edition. In addition to the improved quality of the volume itself, Newman has also updated the translations and annotations of King’s original texts, as well as provided a lengthy introduction, timelines for each of the saints, a bibliography, and an index.
At nearly fifty pages, Newman’s introduction is substantial. She provides a brief biography of the hagiographer and situates him within the context of the rich religious culture that flourished in the Low Countries during the thirteenth century. This period was characterized by the emergence of new forms of religious practice that resisted classification and control by the official church and was inclusive of devoted laypersons; no longer did one need to join a holy order to achieve sanctity. Two of Thomas’s Lives are about lay people who worked closely with the church but were never part of it. Newman continues her introduction with a discussion of Thomas’s hagiographic method, offering a thematic treatment of his works that maps out Thomas’s own development as a hagiographer. Following this section are summaries of the texts themselves and an exploration of their key features. Throughout, Newman reviews the scholarly literature pertaining to Thomas and his work—particularly valuable are her summaries of scholarship in languages other than English.
Thomas’s first foray into sacred biography is his “Life of Abbot John of Cantimpré,” written about the founder of the abbey at Cantimpré where Thomas later entered as a Dominican confessor. Thomas never actually knew John, but gathered the information for his Life from the abbot’s colleagues and parishioners. Because Thomas consistently documents his oral sources, this account, more so than the others, reveals the oral stratum that underlies the narratives associated with John. Most of these narratives demonstrate the effectiveness of John’s preaching. One of the most striking accounts describes a cruel and corrupt nobleman who converted to a life of poverty and humility after hearing John’s preaching. To atone for his prior cruelty to his subjects, the nobleman has his subjects tie a rope around his neck and drag him through the countryside in humility. John also converts a moneylender, who then returns money gotten through usury to the poor and requests to be pulled naked from a pit by a rope tied around his neck.
Although this first hagiography of Thomas is rich in these narrative episodes, it contains few miracles—the ones that occur most often are visions experienced by other people that somehow affirm John’s sanctity. However, Thomas’s second attempt at hagiography, “Life of Christina the Astonishing,” is filled with miraculous happenings. In her introduction, Newman, although not a folklorist, recognizes the folktale quality of this hagiography: “It even begins like a fairy tale: once upon a time there were three orphaned sisters. They decided that the oldest should devote herself to prayer, the second look after the house, and the youngest pasture the cows—and of course, it was the humble cowherd who received God’s grace” (30). The legends associated with Christina that Thomas collected and edited in his hagiography are bizarre, even for hagiography. After she dies Christina meets with God, who offers her a chance to suffer on earth for the sake of souls in Purgatory. Christina, of course, accepts this offer and is resurrected (not for the last time). Not only does Christina throw herself in boiling cauldrons and furnaces (in both cases, where food was being prepared), but she also sits at the bottom of a river for a week, stretches herself on torture devices, and hangs herself from the gallows. In all cases, her body is unharmed.
Thomas’s third hagiography, “Life of Margaret of Ypres,” documents the life of a teenage ascetic who dies young. The account is derived largely from the oral testimony of her spiritual advisor and confessor. This hagiography, too, Newman frames as a folktale: “Thomas casts her as a sacred Cinderella, cruelly misused by her mother and estranged from her worldly sisters—yet in spite of this abuse, it is she who earns the undying love of Christ the Prince” (38). Margaret’s story may perhaps be familiar to many parents of teenagers—she’s moody, rarely eats, avoids housework, spends all her time alone in her room, and avoids conversation with her irritated parents as often as possible. Of course, these actions are framed in terms of her devotion to God rather than normal behavior for teenagers in secular life. Her spiritual advisor tries to make peace between Margaret and her parents. As penance he forces the girl to speak to her parents for a period of time each day, but she refuses to speak with them about anything other than God. Often, when she is tasked with cleaning, she would fall into ecstasy from love of Christ. In one of the few miracles associated with Margaret, she throws out a bowl of eggs, thinking they were only leftover eggshells, so it would look as if she had helped with something that day. Her mother, coming across the now-broken eggs outside the house, is understandably furious. However, through Margaret’s prayers the eggs are restored.
Thomas’s last hagiography, “Life of Lutgard of Aywières,” is the work for which he was most well-known among his contemporaries, as Lutgard is the only saint documented by Thomas that had a significant cult. Thomas’s sources for this Life are Lutgard’s associates as well as Lutgard herself, whom Thomas admires as his spiritual mother. Devoted to contemplation, she flees to a Cistercian convent in France in order to avoid being elected to office; here, through the power of the Virgin Mary, Lutgard is unable to learn French (or at least pretends not to speak it) so that she might be left alone to her contemplation. Not only does Thomas collect miracle tales that record Lutgard levitating and performing miraculous cures, but he also includes several narratives in which Lutgard speaks to the recently departed like a modern-day spirit medium.
This collection of medieval texts is valuable for scholars of medieval folklore and narrative in general. Each account offers an interesting case study in the dynamic between oral and written narrative because Thomas includes numerous personal experience narratives and legends from the community where each saint operated. In all four cases, the tension between biographical specificity and genre conventions is apparent; although these saints were individuals with distinctive lives, a modern folklorist looking for types and motifs would not be disappointed. Each account also documents many rich vernacular religious practices that show the diverse ways that lay people operated outside the boundaries of institutional religion. Scholarly concerns aside, this book is simply an enjoyable read and I recommend it highly.
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[Review length: 1242 words • Review posted on March 30, 2009]