Prophets in Their Own Country: Living Saints and the Making of Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages
Kleinberg's (history, Tel Aviv Univ.) study is neither an exploration of the psychology of individual saints nor a prosopographical analysis of groups of holy men and women. Nor is it an investigation into the legal process by which ecclesiastical officials declared persons possessed of heroic virtues, capable of working miracles, and meriting veneration. Rather, this is a carefully constructed analysis of several 13th- and 14th-century saints as seen and perceived by their communities based on contemporary lives and eyewitness accounts; the focus is on the ways saints responded to the spiritual, physical, and other demands of their social milieus. Soundly researched and sensitively written, the book makes a valuable contribution to the sociology of medieval sainthood. For academic and research libraries.- Bennett D. Hill, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.