Miraculous moments: hagiography and history in the early English church

Barker, Katherine (2012) Miraculous moments: hagiography and history in the early English church. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the connections between hagiography and history in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum ("The ecclesiastical history of the English people") by the Venerable Bede (died 735). The discussion of Anglo-Saxon saints focuses on the hagiographical and political reasons for including miracle stories in this text and how the traditional cults of these native saints represent the English Church within the larger framework of medieval Christianity. In particular the discussion has a Northumbrian focus and looks at King Edwin, St. Oswald, and the popular English saints Cuthbert and Æthelthryth, with specific reference to the political and spiritual contributions these figures made to the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England and to the moral and spiritual reform that is central to the internal message of Bede's Ecclesiastical history.

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