‘The Rich and the Poor, the Lesser and the Great’

Abstract

This article explores the intersection between society and culture in medieval England by examining the ways in which the social identities of female pilgrims were represented in twelfth-century miracle narratives. Miracle stories are written accounts of miraculous events associated with saints' shrines, and often include detailed sociological information about medieval pilgrims. The article focuses on women in these texts, and investigates the extent to which the social roles and labels attributed to female pilgrims by clerical writers suggest a hagiographical discourse of womanhood rather than an accurate reflection of women's social experiences in twelfth-century England.