Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
A lecture by Fr. Robert Godding, SJ (Bollandist Society). This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society.
For many centuries the Church has been venerating the saints. During Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, thousands of Lives have been written in Greek, in Latin and in the languages of the Christian East. Very soon wonderful and imaginary elements were mixed with historical ones, creating “legends”. If the awareness appeared quite early that all Lives of saints were not equally trustworthy, it is only at the beginning of the 17th century that scientific criteria were applied for the first time to that literature.
Critical hagiography is the “science of the saints”, a discipline which was created by Jean Bolland, a Belgian Jesuit, who initiated the publication of what would become the largest ever collection of Lives of saints: the Acta Sanctorum. Through the following three centuries, this unique enterprise would not proceed unchallenged given the attachment of many to the wonderful elements related to their patron saints. Nowadays a scientific approach commands the inquiries for beatification, and critical hagiography has become an intensively cultivated field in universities.
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For the full bio of our speaker, please see our website: lumenchristi.org/event/2021/05/from-92-pages-to-more-than-60-000-how-bollandists-created-science-of-saints-robert-godding-sj
You can support the work of the Bollandist Society by donating on the Society's website: bollandistes.org/support-us
You can support the work of Lumen Christi by donating today at lumenchristi.org/donate
A lecture by Fr. Robert Godding, SJ (Bollandist Society). This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society.
For many centuries the Church has been venerating the saints. During Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, thousands of Lives have been written in Greek, in Latin and in the languages of the Christian East. Very soon wonderful and imaginary elements were mixed with historical ones, creating “legends”. If the awareness appeared quite early that all Lives of saints were not equally trustworthy, it is only at the beginning of the 17th century that scientific criteria were applied for the first time to that literature.
Critical hagiography is the “science of the saints”, a discipline which was created by Jean Bolland, a Belgian Jesuit, who initiated the publication of what would become the largest ever collection of Lives of saints: the Acta Sanctorum. Through the following three centuries, this unique enterprise would not proceed unchallenged given the attachment of many to the wonderful elements related to their patron saints. Nowadays a scientific approach commands the inquiries for beatification, and critical hagiography has become an intensively cultivated field in universities.
---
For the full bio of our speaker, please see our website: lumenchristi.org/event/2021/05/from-92-pages-to-more-than-60-000-how-bollandists-created-science-of-saints-robert-godding-sj
You can support the work of the Bollandist Society by donating on the Society's website: bollandistes.org/support-us
You can support the work of Lumen Christi by donating today at lumenchristi.org/donate
