A SAINT FOR EVERYONE: THE CLERICAL PROMOTION OF SAINTS’ CULTS IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGE
A SAINT FOR EVERYONE: THE CLERICAL PROMOTION OF SAINTS’ CULTS IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGE

Summary/Abstract: This essay wishes to explore the modalities through which the cult of St. Anne, a traditional saint of the liturgical calendar, was revived in the late Middle Ages. In order to attain this goal, the initiatives undertaken at episcopal level by the bishops of Oradea and Transylvania with the purpose of propagating the cult of Mary’s Mother through church patronage will be discussed in conjunction with the ideological motivations underlying them. Furthermore, clerical agency and the contribution of the Order of Friars Minor to the promotion of Anne’s cult in the Kingdom of Hungary will be compared with similar developments taking place across Europe. Such an attempt would have the merit of highlighting, on the one hand, the local contexts that stimulated the development of this cult and, on the other, of contributing to a better understanding of the nature of late medieval sainthood.

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