Communal Acts in the Process of Death: A Comparison Between Nordic and South European 15th-century Hagiographic Material

Abstract

This paper analyses communal elements which were essential for a resurrection miracle narrative. The analysis focuses on the comparison between Nordic and South European hagiographic material. In resurrection miracle depositions, five particular acts of death were frequently recorded in order to show that people were sure about the arrival of death and that a person was believed to be cured through a proper miracle. The material suggests that the acts around a dying person were perceived similarly in Scandinavian and South European miracle testimonies. Thus, Scandinavia's remote geographical location, far from the heart of Christianity, had almost no impact on the ways a resurrection miracle narrative was formulated in the late Middle Ages. Even though these acts seem to be hagiographical topoi, both the witnesses and the commissioners of canonization processes considered these acts such as fit their perception of a death moment and a miraculous recovery.