Death in the Holy Life, session at 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 7–10, 2020

The execution of Marguerite Porete has been a boon to contemporary scholars who see in her death the culmination of her apophatic theology of annihilation. But to what extent is this a projection of critics’ desire to create a uniform narrative for her life, or to see her as a proto-feminist hero(ine)? To what extent do modern critics’ desires differ from those of medieval hagiographers, whose assumptions about women’s sanctity informed their representations of their subjects’ deaths? Did medieval saints indeed yearn to die, and what are the implications of this desire—whether it was actual or declared after the fact by overeager hagiographers? What is the meaning of the ways that saints die—especially in contexts where martyrdom was no longer an option?

This session of papers will explore representations of mortality and the desire to die both in medieval saints’ Lives and in critical approaches to hagiography. Questions to be considered may include the following: Can a desire for death ever be “holy”? What are the implications of this desire—be it actual or assumed by overeager hagiographers? What are the meanings of the ways that saints die? And how do modern critics’ projections of the relationship between sanctity and death differ from those of medieval hagiographers?

Session organizer
Jessica Barr, University of Massachusetts Amherst