2019/20 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

MEDV5281M How to be a Saint in the Middle Ages: Saints' Cults and their impact on culture and society (500-1500)

30 creditsClass Size: 10

Module manager: Dr William Flynn
Email: W.Flynn@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2019/20

Module replaces

MEDV5280M

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

This module examines the ways in which sanctity was constructed and sainthood conferred during the Middle Ages (500-1500) focusing on the cultural and societal impact of male and female saints, their veneration, their legends and miracles, pilgrimage to their shrines and their relics. It gives students the opportunity to trace a topic that had substantial impact both within and widely beyond the religious sphere over a long duration. Notions of sanctity provided a wide variety of models for exhortation and imitation that changed significantly during the period, and the processes for recognising sainthood displayed wider developments in the attempts to centralise religious authority.

Objectives

Provide an introduction to current approaches, tools for research, and the sources (both textual and material) for the study of saints' cults and their development during the Middle Ages.
Guide and develop the students' ability to evaluate and analyse textual and material sources relating to saints' cults.
Provide the opportunity to study a specific sain'’s cult from more than one disciplinary perspective.

Learning outcomes
Students successfully completing this module should:
Form an understanding of development of Saints' cults during the Middle Ages.
Be able to analyse hagiographical texts and their conventions.
Become familiar with the problems and opportunities that hagiographical texts pose for medievalists
Develop an awareness of the multiple ways in which contemporaries interpreted and used saints' cults and the multiple ways in which medievalists interpret them.
Become aware of the multiple textual and material sources that provide evidence for saints' cults and the use of these sources in current research.

Skills outcomes
Students will learn how hagiography and its related textual and material sources have been used in a range studies in several of the disciplines that constitute medieval studies, and how to integrate these sources into their own research within the current research context.

Syllabus

The first four weeks consist of introductory sessions in which students are introduced to current historical views of the development of saints' cults, tools for research, and some textual sources. During the second four weeks a variety of saints' cults are examined topically (e.g. Veneration vs. Canonisation; Miracles and Wonders; Liturgy, Architecture and Relics; Gendered sanctity and sainthood; Power and saints' cults. The final three weeks are devoted to a specific saints' cult addressed from more than one disciplinary perspective.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Seminar	11	2.00	22.00
Private study hours			278.00
Total Contact hours			22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Private study

Each seminar requires substantial preparation of assigned readings and tasks. Each of the two assessed writing assignments requires extensive research and writing time.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Student progress is monitored via student participation in seminars. The instructors can monitor the grasp of the materials and the students' engagement with and mastery of it and provide formative feedback. Each student may also discuss their proposed essays for initial advice from the module tutor or another of the module tutors as appropriate.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,000 word essay due by 12 noon on Monday of teaching week 6	50.00
Essay	3,000 word essay due by 12 noon on MOnday of teaching week 12	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 09/05/2018

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