Hagiography is a rich source for our knowledge of many aspects of medieval culture and tradition. The lives and miracles of the saints may be read on several levels, both as an expression of the dominant ideology and as a reflection of long-term themes in medieval society. The essays in this volume attempt to exploit the Latin hagiographical source

Michael E. Goodich is Professor of Medieval History, University of Haifa, Israel.

Contents: Preface; The Childhood and Adolescence of the Saint: Childhood and adolescence among the 13th-century saints; Bartholomaeus Anglicus on child-rearing; Encyclopaedic literature: child-rearing in the Middle Ages; Il fanciullo come fulcro di miracoli et potere spirituale (XIII e XIV secolo); A saintly child and a saint of children: the childhood of Elizabeth of Thuringia (1207-31); Jÿdische und christliche Traumanalyse im zwölften Jahrhundert. Hagiography and the Politics of Canonisation: The politics of canonization in the 13th century: lay and mendicant saints; A profile of 13th-century sainthood; A note on sainthood in the hagiographical prologue; The contours of female piety in later medieval hagiography; Ancilla Dei: the servant as saint in the later Middle Ages; Vision, dream and canonization policy under Pope Innocent III; The use of direct quotation from canonization hearing to hagiographical Vita et miracula; Innocent III and the miracle as a weapon against disbelief. Medieval Miracles and their Uses: Miracles and disbelief in the late Middle Ages; Battling the Devil in rural Europe: late medieval miracle collections; A chapter in the history of the Christian theology of miracle: Engelbert of Admont's (ca. 1250-1331) Expositio super Psalmum 118 and De miraculis Christi; Filiation and form in the late medieval miracle story; The miraculous military escape in canonization documents; Liturgy and the foundation of cults in the 13th and 14th centuries; Index.