Handmaids of God
Images of Service in the Lives of Merovingian Female Saints
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10196913 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lisa Kaaren Bailey (0000-0002-9027-3314, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 359-379 |
| Publication date | 2019-08-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religious History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4227 • E-ISSN: 1467-9809 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9809.12612 |
| OpenAlex | W2967802078 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Merovingian hagiographies make extensive use of the metaphor of service to demonstrate the sanctity of their subjects. These religious images emerged from a society in which slaves and servants were both ubiquitous and demeaned, and the metaphors were embedded in the social realities of service. This article examines the Lives of three elite female saints who were depicted as slaves, or engaged in acts of servitude: Radegund, Balthild, and Austreberta. It argues that although service as a religious motif was central to each of these texts, the authors engaged with the image in strikingly different ways and to quite different ends, depending on the social world of the text
Aesthetics · Art · Business · Elite · Linguistics · Literature · Metaphor · Motif (music · Political science · Politics · Service (business · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |