J.
Jenkins, K. J. Lewis, eds.
St Katherine of Alexandria: Texts and
Contexts
in Western Medieval Europe.
Turnhout: Brepols,
2003.
Medieval Women:
Texts
and Contexts 8.
xiv,257pp.
Hardback ISBN
2503512909.
Publisher's
recommended price €67.50
St
Katherine of Alexandria
was one of the most popular saints in Medieval Europe. This book
constitutes
the first interdisciplinary collection of essays to explore her cult
and
the range of meanings which St Katherine embodied for her devotees. The
essays between them consider a wide range of evidence, from visual
representations
(wall paintings, manuscript illuminations, stained glass, and seals),
to
literary texts (lives of the saint, prayers, hymns, devotional
manuscripts,
and breviaries) as well as documentary evidence (wills, chronicles,
ecclesiastical
records and antiquarian writings) and the physical remains of churches
and chapels dedicated to St Katherine. These sources are interpreted as
part of wider manifestations of devotion to the saint in England,
France,
Italy, Spain, Sweden and Wales. The authors approach the cult from
varying
disciplinary and methodological perspectives, but all seek to uncover
the
various religious, social and cultural messages contained within the
different
versions of St Katherine which these particular texts and contexts
offer.
The volume as a whole therefore sheds light not only on devotion to St
Katherine, but also on a much wider range of issues and ideologies
governing
the lives of her devotees and the societies in which they lived.
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