medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Katherine French <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>you might want to check weinstein and bell's <I>saints in society</I>. they
did a massive study of the social origins of saints. as i recall they were
really interested in hagiography as an avenue to social history, but they did
interesting "demography" of saints in the process.
thanks, Katherine.
i'll try and do that, though actually doing work to find out the answers to my
idle questions is against my religion.
of course, "saints" would only constitute a small (albeit very important and
comparatively well-documented one) sub-set of abbots/bishops/monks/canons,
etc., and it's the broader demograhic that i'm interested in.
Thomas Sullivan, OSB [mailto:[log in to unmask]] wrote:
>Wasn't Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis of peasant origins?
perhaps.
my first thought, since that's the Old Story, at least, if not a Pious
Legend.
i *think* that Lindy Grant recently put it to rest in her biography of him,
however, going for the idea that he was a son of the minor nobility.
(i'd like to hear otherwise, however.)
a very, very good biography, btw, that Grant one. (she's an art historian
--curator of the photographic library at the Courtauld-- but she's really
mastered the Method of History, and her work is soundly based on the Original
Sources, including some yet to be published.)
the Bautz biography just says that he "came to the abbey at nine or ten":
http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/s/s4/suger_v_s_d.shtml
my thought is that, social considerations aside (a *big* aside, btw), entry
into a monastery as an oblate or monk (in this period) was simply not open to
just anyone --grown men certainly paid for it, big-time, with gifts; and
"entry gifts" or "dowries" were very common for children (of the castelain
nobility) being "given" to abbeys.
i'd just think that it was pretty exceptional for a young fellow of neither
substance nor social standing to become a full-fledged monk (lay brotherhood,
that's something else).
sure, it *could* have happened, but rarely.
again, i'm only talking about regular and secular monks and canons in the
period pre-1200 or so. after that the whole neighborhood went to hell, far as
i'm concerned.
that's my stand and i'll stick to it till someone who actually knows something
about the subject tells me different.
interesting to note that i can't seem to find the Vita of Dominic of Silos in
either the AASS or the PL, and the Bautz biography doesn't seem to mention
one, either :
http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/d/dominikus_v_s.shtml --updated just a few months
ago.
all of the websites i could find on him are based on secondary/tertiary
sources, it seems.
so, what's the *primary* source for Dominic's life ?
best from here,
christopher
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