Geoffrey of Burton: Life and Miracles of St Modwenna

by Clarendon Press

Overview

Geoffrey of Burton's Life and Miracles of St Modwenna (BHL 2097) is among the most substantial pieces of twelfth-century English hagiographic writing not previously to have appeared in print. It was produced by the abbot of Burton, where Modwenna's bones supposedly lay, in the period 1118-50, and consists of two parts of unequal length: the vita or Life proper, and the collection of miracle stories. The first part, forming about four-fifths of the total text, was based on an earlier Life by the Irish author Conchubranus, which Geoffrey revised and modified in style and substance. His creative rewriting of the Life throws much light on the Latinity, religious attitudes, and historical consciousness of an early twelfth-century Benedictine author. The second and shorter part of the text is made up of accounts of the miraculous cures and punishments connected with Modwenna's shrine at Burton. Geoffrey composed these stories on the basis of oral traditions and his own experience and they constitute a valuable source for the social and religious history of this part of England in the Norman period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198206064
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/23/2002
Series:	Oxford Medieval Texts
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

University of St Andrews

Table of Contents

IntroductionVita sancte moduenne virginis/Life of the Virgin Saint ModwennaIndexes

Editorial Reviews

"The Life and Miracles of St. Modwenna is typical of the excellent editions produced in the Oxrford Medieval Texts series. Robert Bartlett's translation balances well the two demands of readable English prose and fathfulness to the Latin."—The Historian

"A splendid work of scholarship...present[s] enormous new riches for the consideration of students of hagiography and of the religious history of England."—Speculum

From the Publisher