Work and Its Representations in Early Medieval Saints' Lives

Explores the dynamics of saints' work as represented by their hagiographers.


The lives of many early medieval saints show them working with their hands. Radegund cooks in the kitchen, carries firewood, and cleans privies; Fiacre cultivates a garden; Brigid milks cows and makes cheese; Dunstan shapes metal and constructs buildings. Other saints raise crops, herd cattle, write books, or weave cloth. Equally at home in garden, workshop, and scriptorium, these saints work alongside other people, interacting regularly with livestock, materials, and the land: miracles and other supernatural events are embedded in the habitual, everyday routines of the saints' own communities. Saints exemplify the balance between productive, creative work and the toil or effort required to accompany it, sometimes aligned with penitential labour. But more often, the saints celebrate work as a rewarding result of divine gift, human ingenuity and communal cooperation.

This book examines the representation of work - from arable and pastoral agriculture to textile arts and caretaking - in the vitae of saints who lived in Ireland, Britain, and Francia between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Bringing together close readings of these texts, evidence from archaeology, and anthropological approaches to material culture, it argues that through such work, saints showed others how to survive, thrive, and build a world that promised both physical security and spiritual rewards.