The study of a martyr’s life in medieval society is very important to medieval historians as it allows them to analyze the current religious view in a particular time period. Hagiographies are significant because the person that writes it, idolizes a martyr for their contributions to a religious community. A hagiography on a saint can be used to research and understand the idea of saintliness that existed in a particular society. This essay will argue that the East Anglian and the Merovingian society, both had similar ideas of a martyr’s saintliness.
Abbo of Fleury’s hagiography, The Martyrdom of St. Edmund, and an unknown nun of Chelles hagiography, Life of St. Balthild, shows that the idea of saintliness, in the East Anglian and Merovingian society, were derived from the characteristics of a martyr’s heroic nature and their association to miracles, which can be seen in St. Edmund and St. Balthild. Scholar, Pierre Delooz, researched the idea of how a martyr’s saintliness is depicted in the Catholic Church and found that it is defined by their actions of heroism.
Heroism can be defined as a saint’s contribution to the overall success in a society in which they live in. A martyr’s heroism was one of the most important idea’s that defined their saintliness in East Anglian and Merovingian society. St. Edmund shows heroism differently from St. Balthild because in medieval society, men were particularly drawn to anger to show their masculinity. The gender difference is why St. Edmund shows heroism through the protection of East Anglia from the Vikings rather than the way St. Balthild shows heroism through selflessness in Merovingian society.
St. Edmund shows the characteristics of a hero in East Anglia because he is depicted as a noble servant of God that has maintained his true faith of Christianity because he restrained against the cruel and lived the true faith of Christianity. St. Edmund restraining the cruel is an important point because of his heroic attempt to resist the Vikings. St. Edmund shows the virtues of heroism when the bishop is pleading St. Edmund to accept the terms of Ivar the boneless and the Viking heathen army, but Edmund refuses and declares that he would rather die for his faith than repent the will of God.
St. Edmund’s heroic virtues are looked up upon in East Anglia because St. Edmund would rather give up his life to protect his people and their faith than give in to the demands of the pagan Viking army. The East Anglian people admire St. Edmund’s heroism because of his courage and sacrifice to protect their community. Also, St. Edmund shows, acts of heroism when he was captured by Ivar the boneless and the Viking heathen army. Edmund was tortured in an attempt to make him denounce Christianity, but St. Edmund refused and would not forsake Christ, which led to his execution.
The heroism of St. Edmund to protect the people of East Anglia and to not denounce Christianity shows how he was admired for sacrificing his life to protect others and his faith. The East Anglian people respected St. Edmund’s heroism to protect them and this is one of the reasons that he was canonized as a saint. The Merovingian idea of saintliness is similar to East Anglia’s because they also based a martyr’s saintliness on heroism. Although, at the time in medieval society the idea of masculinity restricted St. Balthild to act in the same manner as St. Edmund because women were not supposed to act fierce and violent like men.
Therefore, St. Balthild’s had to act in a womanly manner and her heroism was seen in her selflessness to put the community before herself by spreading charity and religious prosperity. St. Balthild was committed to helping the people by clothing and feeding the poor, washing the elderly’s feet, taking care of proper burials of the dead, and funnelling large amounts of gold and silver to men and virgins. St. Balthild’s popularity rose in Merovingian society as she helped the people and was described as a mother to princes, daughter to priests, and a pious nurse to children.
Through the selfless actions of St. Balthild, people started looking up to her as a hero because she always put the people before her needs. People in Merovingian society also believed that St. Balthild was a hero because of the religious prosperity she spread throughout communities. St. Balthild prohibited evil customs of simoniac heresy, people killing their children rather than nurturing them, and was against slavery. The prohibiting of evil customs by St. Balthild gained popularity in Merovingian society because, as stated previously, she always put the people’s needs before her needs, which shows her heroism.
St. Balthild can be compared to Mother Teresa because Mother Teresa was also looked upon as a hero because she always put the needs of the poor before her needs. St. Balthild also gained popularity among unfree people like slaves for going against slavery, which was a popular custom at the time. Slaves worshiped her for giving them freedom and believed that St. Balthild’s heroism to promote freedom showed her saintliness. The heroism to promote religious prosperity in Merovingian society was mentioned in St. Balthild’s hagiography “for all these deeds, a great reward must surely have awaited her”.
This can be interpreted as the heroic deeds that St. Balthild did for the community must not go unnoticed and she must be canonized as a saint. The praise that the Merovingian people showed for St. Balthild heroism, due to her selflessness of helping out the community, can link the idea that heroism is one of the foremost principles that the Merovingian’s used to define one’s saintliness. In both the Merovingian and East Anglian society the idea of a martyr’s saintliness was linked to their heroism, but was restricted by gender because St. Edmund had to act manly and show his heroism through protecting East Anglia from the Viking Heathen army and in Merovingian society St. Balthild had to act womanly and show her heroism in a non violent way by acting in a selfless manner in the community.
In both societies heroism was seen as helping the community through actions. However, the idea of a martyr’s saintliness is not only defined by their heroism, it is also defined by the miracles they perform. Pierre Delooz explains that during the time of 500 CE to 1000 CE the Catholic Church believed that miracles are extraordinary events that reveal a martyr’s saintliness.
In East Anglia, the belief that a martyr’s saintliness was associated with the miracles they performed and can be seen in St. Edmund. After St. Edmund was executed by the Viking Heathen army, they hid his head in a forest, God then sent a wolf to protect the head against other animals so that the people could reclaim it. The wolf miracle performed by God shows that if St. Edmund is worthy of God’s protection, then St. Edmund is worthy of becoming a saint and therefore this is how the East Anglian people associate a martyr’s miracles with their saintliness.
The worthiness of God’s miracles to prove someone’s saintliness can also be seen when the East Anglian people go to undercover St. Edmund’s body and are amazed that there are no lacerations from the torture of the Vikings. The East Anglian people understand that saints are a gateway to God and when miracles are performed it shows a saint’s Godlike features, which defines a martyr’s saintliness. There is evidence that people worshiped St. Edmund’s miracles as saintliness because they built a church and paid tribute to St. Edmund by cutting his hair, trimming his nails, and offering him gifts of gold and silver.
The final point that shows East Anglia associated miracles with a martyr’s saintliness is when Abbo of Fleury explained that saints should be worshiped because God has made these people in his image and shows this through performing miracles. Abbo of Fleury recognizes the work of miracles in saints to be the work of God, therefore peoples should worship a saint for they are worshiping God’s work. The East Anglian society believed that the association of miracles showed a martyr’s saintliness because miracles show that a saint is Godlike and worthy of God’s protection.
Merovingian society had similar beliefs to that of East Anglia because St. Balthild performed miracles and this was believed as a martyr’s proof of saintliness. St. Balthild was mentioned to have clothed and fed the poor, washed the elderly’s feet, and taken care of proper burials of the dead, and is explained that God has come through St. Balthild to perform these miracles of charity. The Merovingian society believed that God was working through St. Balthild, which associated a martyr with their saintliness because only saints performed miracles.
St. Balthild also performed miracles by curbing simoniac heresy and building monasteries in Merovingian society and the people believed that God was working in St. Balthild’s body to perform these miracles. The association with God working through his servants shows a person’s saintliness because when God touches a person, they are automatically divine and of the highest religious authority. Therefore, only people of the highest religious authority can perform miracles and this defines someone’s saintliness. Furthermore, when St. Balthild is described as very sick and close to death, she is miraculously healed.
The miracle that healed St. Balthild’s body compares to St. Edmund when his body remained intact from his beheading and had no scars. Only people that prove worthy (saints) can be touched by God’s miracles and therefore the miracles that God performs on certain people reveal their saintliness because God deems them worthy to be touched by his miracles. By studying the hagiographies of St. Edmund and St. Balthild, the East Anglian and Merovingian society show that they have the same idea of saintliness because they are both founded on a martyr’s acts of heroism and their association to miracles.
Heroism was important in defining a martyr’s saintliness in both these societies because it showed the contributions that martyr’s did in a community, but because St. Balthild was a woman, her gender restricted her from acting as a protector like St. Edmund and had to show heroism through her selflessness in a community. Also, miracles proved someone’s saintliness in these two societies because it showed that God was acting in the body of a martyr, which proved them worthy of saintliness.