The Anxiety of Sanctity

St Gerald of Aurillac and his Maker

Bibliographic Data

ID10093093
AuthorsStuart Airlie (University of Glasgow, corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume43
Issue3
Pages372-395
Publication date1992-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Ecclesiastical History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0469 • E-ISSN: 1469-7637
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022046900001342
OpenAlexW1995538047
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited14

Count Gerald of Aurillac (855–909) might seem rather out of place in a gallery of medieval saints: an aristocratic warrior, a great lord, Gerald seemed very much a man of this world rather than a saint in ascetic withdrawal from it. This was also the initial opinion of his biographer, who is, as far as this article is concerned, effectively his maker since we shall be dealing only with the ‘textual’ Gerald and not the historical one. This biographer, no less a figure than Abbot Odo of Cluny (879–942), began his Vita of Gerald ( c . 930) by saying that many people doubted that Gerald was a saint. The opening words of Odo's Praefatio are quite explicit and perhaps rather surprising: ‘many people tend to doubt whether what is said about the blessed Gerald is true. And quite a lot of these people say that these stories are not only not true but fantastic.’ Originally Odo himself had not been too certain of Gerald's saintliness, though by the time he came to write the Vita he was convinced enough.2 The problem lay in convincing others

Art · Art history · Asceticism · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Reflexive pronoun · SAINT · Theology · Byzantine Studies and History · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Psychology

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