Their literary value differs from one collection to another. Borrowing from Latin models, the clerical authors wrote for believers whose faith related them to living persons. In the description of the relations, courtly literature began to influence the miracle accounts. The short life of this literature was a result of its lack of adaptation to new social conditions. Written in a monastic and rural context, these accounts did not survive the new emerging urban mentality.
Popular piety is mirrored in the miracles.
This study is of special interest for scholars of Hispanic literature and culture and for those in medieval studies and comparative literature. It is precisely in comparative studies that the work of Beterous will produce a rich harvest. She admirably explores the miracles of Our Lady from the point of view of the history of mentalities. Specifically, the miracles present a Mariology ad usum populi manifesting the powerful role of Mary with God, in this world, in her fight against the devil, and at the hour of death. Although limited geographically and linguistically to the regions of southern France and northern Spain, Beterous' work has a paradigmatic character, both methodologically and thematically.