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This book explores the connection between saints and animals, and how the power over animals has been a characteristic of saints from their beginnings in the Early Church.
List of contents
1. Introduction
Mathilde van Dijk
2. Canes Domini? ‘Saint’ Guinefort, popular devotion, hierarchies and Animalité
Stephen Molvarec
3. Contested Popular Rituals in Late-Medieval Italy: Franciscan saints and animal baptism
Bianca Lopez
4. Hundheiðinn and Heathen Hounds: Dogs and the Authority of Saints in Old Norse Literature
Ashley Castelino
5. Wondrous birds in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
Eric-Ania Haley-Halinski
6. Wonderful animals in the biographies of the prophet Muhammed
Nicolas Payen
7. ‘Too large for calm consumption’: Spiders as silken saviours and venomous villains in the medieval lives of saints
Sven Gins
8. ‘I am like the cat’: Human-Animal encounters in Devotio Moderna biographies
Mathilde van Dijk
9. Saints and animals on medieval seals: a religious bestiary for moral purposes and identity
Caroline Simonet
10. Martinus vs. Lupus: Martin of Tours as a Protector against Wolves in European Folkways and Folklore.
Martin Walsh
11. Holy Cat! Virtuous Felines, Medieval saints and their appropriations
Ann Martinez
About the author
Mathilde van Dijk teaches History of Christianity at the University of Groningen. She specializes in the history of late medieval reform as well as in the connection between the Middle Ages and popular culture and heritage studies, focusing on the Devotio Moderna, Carthusians, and saints.
Summary
This book explores the connection between saints and animals, and how the power over animals has been a characteristic of saints from their beginnings in the Early Church.
