Le vain siecle guerpir: A Literary Approach to Sainthood through Old French Hagiography of the Twelfth Century

Through an analysis of French hagiography and the vernacular translations of nineteen saints’ lives, Johnson and Cazelles explore the impact of saints on ordinary men and the relationship between holiness and heroism in the twelfth century. Divided into two parts, the first is devoted to aspects of the hero-saint and savior-saint, and the second, organized alphabetically by saint’s name, engages the French hagiographic traditions.