In late antiquity, Christian intellectuals claimed that martyrs had been succeeded by confessors. Martyrdoms had supposedly characterized the period of conflict between persecuting emperors and early Christianity; after the rise of Christian emperors, however, a distinctive lifestyle, such as asceticism, could substitute. According to Gregory of Tours, confessors had to persecute themselves. As noted by Hilary of Arles in his vita of Honoratus, his predecessor as bishop of Arles in the early fifth century, "even peace creates its own martyrs" (182).
Both martyrs and confessors might be viewed as saints and acquire cults. But explaining the rise and function of the cults of saints in late antiquity is still a challenge for modern scholars. Biblical support was minimal, and there were few precedents in early Christianity. In addition, saints' cults seemed to overturn traditional society by promoting outcasts, social inferiors, and even women as heroic figures worthy of honor and emulation. Because of this inherent tension, in the early fourth century the future of saints' cults was indeterminate. They had the potential to challenge the longstanding social order; they also had the potential to reinforce the usual hierarchy of wealth and authority.
The starting point for Michel Fauquier's book is the above comment of Hilary of Arles about the presence of "martyrs" even after the accommodation between church and state. Among modern scholars a book about late antique sainteté would typically conjure up discussions of the cults of dead people who had been classified as saints, as well as their vitae, tombs, relics, and miracles. Their saintliness had been conferred or acknowledged after their deaths. In contrast, Fauquier's "saints" were very much alive, more like saints-in-the-making--men and women considered saintly already in their lifetimes. As he observes, "the authors of vitae were convinced of the saintliness of those whose vita they composed" (69) and "the reputation of a saint was solidly established during his or her lifetime" (71). The key for Fauquier's classification is the existence of vitae: "we will systematically classify as 'saints' all those whose vita we still possess" (71).
Fauquier limits his investigation to vitae composed in Gaul during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. His collection includes thirty vitae providing information about twenty-nine saints. The saints include the usual suspects, such as Martin of Tours from the fourth century and Germanus of Auxerre from the fifth century; most of them lived in the later fifth or sixth century. Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus were the authors of just over half of the vitae. This collection, according to Fauquier, is "sufficiently rich, representative, and coherent" to serve as a firm foundation for his analysis (61). In passing, note that this is perhaps the only book about saints in early medieval Gaul that does not use the treatises of Gregory of Tours about the miracles of St. Martin and St. Julian of Brioude.
Fauquier's analysis is based on a meticulously close reading: "we have undertaken a continuous reading of the vitae…to saturate ourselves with their vocabulary, their rhythm, and their logic" (72). He describes his interpretive perspective as "une approche essentialiste" (74), which "takes seriously the project of the hagiographers" (43), i.e. the authors of the vitae. This approach allows him to take the information in the vitae at face value, observing that "the discourse of the hagiographers is truthful" (44).
Part 1 is largely a study of the vocabulary of the vitae. The first chapter surveys the many titles applied to saintly men and women, as well as the many activities associated with saintliness. The obvious title of sanctus was often combined with beatus. According to Fauquier, the first title indicated God's recognition of certain people as saintly, while the second characterized their subsequent condition of blessedness (170). Other titles were also used, such as confessor, miles Christi, pastor, amicus Dei; the list is long. The many aspects of saintliness were also considerable. Through their contempt of social interactions the lives of saints had previewed "a kingdom that is not of this world." Not surprisingly, some had taken up residence on islands, on mountains, or in forests (246).
The second chapter highlights the virtus--the power--of saints. Because these saints had earned their subsequent esteem through their demonstrations of humility and charity, they had become exemplars for others. Even after death, their bodies gave off "the fragrance of saintliness" (344). While Martin of Tours was one model for monks who became bishops, the career of the general Germanus, who became bishop of Auxerre, was more attractive for aristocrats who entered the episcopacy. Fauquier concludes that the "discourse about saintliness" reached an inflection point in the later fifth century, corresponding to the publication of the vita of Germanus, "when the church firmly adopted the new form of saintliness that was no longer sealed by bloodstained martyrdom" (475).
Part 2 focuses on the activities of these select saints. The first chapter highlights their roles as defenders of the faith, manifested in their opposition to pagan cults as well as their enforcement of discipline within their communities. Especially intriguing is their opposition to two versions of Christianity condemned as heresies. In the later fourth century, Priscillian and some supporters were executed after condemnation by secular authorities; in the fifth century, the teachings of Pelagius promoted the value of monks' personal willpower for self-improvement. Despite the reemergence of actual martyrs and the validation of an ascetic lifestyle, in ecclesiastical councils, bishops, including many of Fauquier's saints, resisted both movements.
The second chapter presents the saints as protectors. As bishops, they represented their cities before imperial officials and then barbarian kings. These interactions filled a spectrum from cooperation to confrontation, all against a background of the authorities' "fearful reverence" (630, 645). But for ordinary believers saints and bishops seemed less fearsome. In a violent world they delivered justice and looked after the destitute.
As patrons, saints and bishops had appropriated traditional roles. The third chapter highlights their new role as antagonists of the devil, the evil Adversary. One weapon was prayer; another was their tears. The most powerful was the performance of miracles: "when bloodstained martyrdom had ceased to be the unique seal of saintliness, miracles were implemented as the new touchstone of saintliness" (730). The impact of saints was total, "leaving no space, no time, and, of course, no person outside their concern" (819).
Part 3 examines the general characteristics of the lives of Fauquier's selected saints. The first chapter discusses their backgrounds. Because the authors of the vitaesometimes knew little about the saints' parents, they seemed to have "fallen from the sky" (831). Although some of them did in fact descend from aristocratic families, the authors often exaggerated by "ennobling the memory of saintliness" (855). In their vitae, saints formed "the authentic new nobility" (856).
The second chapter looks at their careers. Almost all of them had adopted an ascetic lifestyle, as solitaries or as monks, located in "places separated from the world but still in contact with it" (920-21). While the authors of the vitae considered monasticism as "a genuine preliminary education for saintliness" (927), holding lesser clerical offices seemed unimportant. Many of the saints instead seemed destined to become bishops, although not all were happy about their promotions.
The third chapter considers the saints' influence during their lifetimes. They founded monasteries, built churches in rural parishes, and instituted litanies and rogations in the liturgy. They travelled throughout their episcopal dioceses and more widely. As spiritual directors they were seen as "fathers." As a result, their funerals could become grand events for the communities, and they were honored in cults: "after contributing to the expansion of the catholic church, the saint acquired his own catholic dimension" (1042). Fauquier's final conclusion is that "the new saintliness whose form emerged in Gaul during the 4th-6th centuries would serve as a foundation for all future forms of saintliness" (1055).
This short summary only hints at the many ideas and suggestions in Fauquier's book. But notwithstanding its inherent richness, this is a difficult book to engage with. The most imposing obstacle is the colossal length. In effect, this book consists of four full-length books: one includes an extended introduction and a prologue that surveys the history of Gaul from the fourth century through the sixth century (95 pages); the second is the study of the vocabulary of the vitae (337 pages); the third is the study of saints' activities (342 pages); the fourth is the study of the saints' lives (220 pages), followed by another 156 pages of general conclusions, annexes, a bibliography, and indexes.
A second obstacle is the fulsomeness of the narrative. Fauquier organizes his discussion by topics; but for each topic, he quotes and scrutinizes seemingly every possible example from his collection of vitae. This extravagance makes for tiresome reading. In addition, Fauquier quotes at length from modern scholarship, mostly by French scholars. These quotations give the analysis a repetitive, backward-looking perspective. Many, many wheels are being reinvented in the narrative.
Yet another obstacle is the timelessness of the narrative. Occasionally Fauquier mentions some transition points in the early medieval discourse about saintliness. But usually he seems to consider his period of three centuries as a static, almost monolithic age. In each topical section the examples are a chronological jumble, with little linear sequencing or progression.
In the end, Fauquier's unique perspective on saints and saintliness is problematic. Peter Brown once characterized saints as "the very special dead." Fauquier's "saints" are, to coin another phrase, "the very special living people." But what made his twenty-nine living saints so special? Fauquier himself concedes that their lives were not so distinctive: "the actions of the saints were not formally different from most of the behavior of other bishops, monks, and believers of their time" (479). If that admission is taken seriously, then over three centuries thousands of clerics and monks in Gaul would have qualified as living saints. The unique feature of Fauquier's special saints is, simply, that their lives are known in detail because they happened to become the subjects of vitae that happened to survive for us to read. This sort of double random selection is not a solid underpinning for timeless generalizations about saintliness over three centuries. Instead, studies of saints and saintliness must acknowledge chronological changes and regional diversity. In early medieval Gaul, the holiness of both living saintly people and dead saints varied considerably over time and from city to city.
Fauquier mentions a website from which readers can download more annexes, as well as a short list of corrections (33). An additional correction should be noted in the bibliography: Fauquier attributes to my authorship three articles that were in fact written by Marc Van Uytfanghe, an outstanding scholar of early medieval hagiography.