Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Publication Title
Archivaria
Issue
60
First page number:
105
Last page number:
123
Abstract
In 1234, the papacy asserted an exclusive right to canonize saints. To gain control over the canonization process, popes required increasingly specific written evidence from communities about their saints and developed investigative procedures to authenticate the communities’ miraculous evidence. Gathering written testimony for review in Rome was an act of domination over local processes for sanctifying community members. Not only did papal record-keeping remove decision-making from local hands, but it also enabled review of correct belief, structured community responses to the sacred, and provided an effective display of papal rights. During the process of St. Gilbert of Sempringham in 1201–1203, Pope Innocent III articulated new record-keeping requirements. St. Gilbert’s canonization provides a window into this transition.
Keywords
Archives; Canonization; Catholic Church; Middle Ages; Records – Management
Disciplines
Archival Science | History | Library and Information Science
Language
English
Permissions
Copyright Michelle Light. Used with permission.
Repository Citation
Light, M.
(2006).
Evidence of Sanctity: Record-keeping and Canonization at the Turn of the 13th Century.
Archivaria(60),
105-123.
https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/lib_articles/461