Grey-zone Saints in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, session at the 24th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 3–6, 2017

At the forthcoming International Medieval Congress in Leeds (3-6 July 2017) The Cult of Saints project team, University Oxford, is organising a strand on grey-zone, or marginal, saints in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

A limited number of Christian heroes, mostly New Testament figures and martyrs, were renowned across Christendom. Many more struggled hard to gain a wider prominence, or even local recognition, and often remained saints only in the eyes of single partisans or restricted groups. Their sainthood was suggested but not fully accepted, or promoted but contested; their cults almost succeeded, but finally failed. Sometimes their very existence was put into question.