Writing Faith : Text, Sign, and History in the Miracles of Sainte Foy

Rating:
Summary: You Gotta Have "Faith"!
Review: This book is a study of the collections of miracle stories surrounding the cult of Sainte Foy (Saint Faith) centered in the monastery of Conques in southern France, especially the "Liber miraculorum sancte Fidis." One of authors' main goals is "to situate this collection of miracle narratives culturally within the eleventh century without losing the nuanced and subtle differences inscribed in its textual subdivisions" (p. 19). Though primarily a literary analysis, this work attempts to integrate methods of various academic disciplines in order to achieve a more nuanced reading of the texts. The authors focus their attention on the shifting authorial voices behind the collections of miracles and eschew the more naïve readings of earlier scholars which sought to glean from these documents data on the culture of tenth and eleventh century southern France without sifting out the authors' intentional tropes which served their rhetorical purposes, the so-called "bobbing for data" approach (p. 12). This study builds upon the research of revisionist historians of medieval monasticism who have stressed the ideological and community-shaping nature hagiographic literature (p. 14). Chapters 1 and 2 focus on books 1 and 2 of the Liber miraculorum written in the eleventh century by Bernard of Angers, a classically educated monk from northern France and, thus, an outsider to Conques. Chapter 1 employs the paradigm of the trickster saint to analyze Bernard's telling of Sainte Foy's miracle traditions. Foy seems to specialize in restoring eyes, freeing prisoners, and resurrecting dead animals. Many of the saint's miracles often appear to have the quality of a practical joke or serve humorous ends. Often she outwits an opponent, and is even shown to be a murderer, even a "serial killer" (p. 37). It also becomes clear in this chapter that Bernard is constructing an "ideological portrait" of himself as well as the Conques monastery and the Rouergue (p. 24). He inserts himself as an "eyewitness" to several of the miracles he reports. He portrays himself as converted skeptic. His portrayal of the "rustic" nature of Conques and the Rouergue is self-serving and meant not only to emphasize the humble piety surrounding Foy's cult but also to contrast with his own sophisticated environment in northern France. In these and many more ways, the author is "present" in his account and uses it to construct his own image. In chapter 2 a picture of Bernard emerges as both an early medieval and a pre-cursor of the twelfth century. Among the early medieval tendencies are Bernard's association of the monastery with power, more than holiness; the absence of any moral criteria for those Foy helps; suspicion of three-dimensional representations of the sacred; the acceptance of a traditional, three-tiered social model. However, in many ways "Bernard's intellectual approach seems to have more in common with what we expect in the twelfth century than what we know of the late tenth" (p. 56). In chapter 3 we learn that the authors-continuators of Bernard had a very different approach and agenda. Their own presence is much more limited in the text and their primary concern is with the expansion of Sainte Foy's cult. Thus in books 3 and 4 the monk-authors portray cult of Sainte Foy as universal. She is less the trickster-child of Bernard and more a celestial virgin martyr with the added qualities of an adult and physician (p. 85). In order to demonstrate Foy's worthiness to be one of the leading saints, the authors of books 3 and 4 add resurrection of humans to Foy's miracle repertoire (p. 89). Chapter 4 focuses on the "late miracle narratives" written in the second half of the eleventh century. Much attention is placed to the manipulation of earlier traditions that show up in the various manuscript groups. Chapter 5 looks at the semiotics of the miracle collections with special attention to social symbols and gender issues. One surprising feature is the lack of anti-feminism. Finally, the conclusion includes a comparison with the miracles of Saint Benedict written at Fleury. Overall, the authors have done an excellent job of showing the importance of the authors' "voice" in the miracle narratives of Sainte Foy. Both ideological and community-shaping agendas were important to those who wrote these accounts. It would have been nice to have a table show the relative numbers of the different types of miracles in various collections, and the late addition of comparative material in the conclusion was odd. Also, the brief analysis of architecture at Conques (though probably irresistible to an art historian such as Sheingorn) seemed tacked on and not particularly relevant. Despite these minor criticisms I found this book both enlightening and useful. It is MUST for anyone interested in monasticism, miracles or the middle ages!