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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Does not this topos figure prominently in the story of the death of Saint Scholastica? Is it not part of her legend that God sent a storm preventing Benedict from leaving his soon-to-die sister? MG --- Chris Daniell <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval > religion and culture > > As far as I can gather from my reading it is > commonplace for saints and > other holy people to know the time of their > impending death and so be able > to prepare for it thoroughly. This certainly occurs > in Anglo-Saxon > literature (for example St Cuthbert) though the > foreknowledge does not give > a precise time, rather along the lines of 'he knew > he was about to die ...' > A variation on this something happens just before > death (having been in a > coma the saint speaks just before death etc). This > is of course different > from your average person knowing when they were > going to die. > > The alternative to this is that sudden death > (without preparation) is seen > as very bad. > > Foreknowledge and sudden death occur very frequently > in literature (I have > written about this is 'Death and Burial in Medieval > England 1066-1550). One > aside is that from a literary perspective some > deaths (virtually all > sudden) denote an evil person (drowning, being > struck by lightning ...) > whilst good people have foreknowledge and > preparation time. > > Chris Daniell > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join > medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave > medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's > owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html