Proving Sanctity: Problems and Solutions in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract

"Proving Sanctity: Problems and Solutions in the Later Middle Ages." During much of the Middle Ages it was believed that sanctity needed no proof. A saint was a saint, and others simply acknowledged that fact. But from the twelfth century, Western society grew more hesitant about its saints, and while the fiction of self-evidence remained, new ways were sought to authenticate sanctity. The article describes the various stages in the process of authentication, from the beginning of public debate over a person's sanctity to its formal termination in a papal pronouncement. Sanctity was an elusive concept that was permitted to evolve inconsistently to allow the inclusion of unconventional saints. Episodes from earlier saints' lives were used to justify the behavior of candidates for sanctity. If the candidacy was successful, elements from the new saint's life could serve the next generation of saints, continuously broadening the saintly possible. The examiners' concentration on miracles is interpreted, not as a reflection of medieval credulity, but as a preference for objectively verifiable data. Thus, although virtue was considered more important, it was too subjective to serve as the main proof of sanctity.

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