Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West

This title examines the innumerable local cults which developed in western Europe between about 400 and 1000, concentrating especially on Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints. The volume combines wide-ranging surveys with crucial reference material, including a hand list of all known Anglo-Saxon saints.
This text explores the development of the cult of the saints in western Europe between c.400 and 1000. The main emphasis is upon Anglo-Saxon England, post-Roman Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but there are contributions on Francia and on western Europe as a whole The book combines a broad geographical spread with a wide range of disciplines and approaches - textual, archaeological, genealogical, onomastic, as well as historical. Veneration of innumerable local saints and martyrs is one of the defining characteristics of early medieval society. The contributors look at how such saints came to be recognized and how they were enshrined, the circumstances in which they proliferated and the factors leading to the development of their often extremely localized cults. Throughout, the aim is to emphasize the pan-European context, to place insular developments in a wider continuum extending from Ireland through to Rome and Byzantium. The volume combines wide-ranging surveys, providing fundamental orientation on a variety of core subjects, with reference material (including a handlist of all known Anglo-Saxon saints).