Writing History with Female Religious Communities: Medieval and Modern Hagiography
Journal: Studies An Irish Quarterly Review
Year: 2022

Writing History with Female Religious Communities:Medieval and Modern Hagiography1 Máirín MacCarron (bio) The importance of hagiographies for the study of early medieval history cannot be overstated. These texts are used to illuminate contemporary social, religious, and political practices, and to understand the intellectual environment of hagiographers. However, an over-emphasis on the hagiographer's agenda, though crucial for understanding a work's historical context, sometimes introduces too