IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 517: Crossing Borders in Episcopal Hagiography: How Borders and Their Transgression Defined Episcopal Authority and Activity

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	EPISCOPUS: Society for the Study of Bishops & Secular Clergy
Organiser:	Evan Gatti, Department of Art & Art History, Elon University, North Carolina
Moderator/Chair:	Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Department of History, Indiana University, Bloomington
Paper 517-a	Bishops without Borders?: The Legendary Travels of Apostolic Founding Bishops (Language: English) Samantha Kahn Herrick, Department of History, Syracuse University, New York Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Religious Life
Paper 517-b	Early Medieval Hagiography without Miracles from the Diocese of Utrecht and Beyond (Language: English) David Defries, Department of History, Kansas State University Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Religious Life
Paper 517-c	Vernacular Hagiography and Episcopal Authority: The Example of Iceland (Language: English) Haraldur Hreinsson, Historisches Seminar, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Religious Life
Abstract	The borders of episcopal authority were fraught in the Middle Ages. Bishops might exercise property rights outside their dioceses, engage in missionary work, and undertake political maneuvers that spanned administrative, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. Saintly bishops crossed still more borders. Their miracles took no account of such boundaries and even flouted the line between life and death. Their relics often traveled, and in turn inspired others to go on pilgrimage. Hagiography offers a rich perspective on the ways that borders - and their transgression - defined episcopal authority and activity. This session explores the role of borders and border-crossing in hagiography by or about medieval bishops.