By Ann W. Astell
via its exam of a sequence of particular ancient figures and events, Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern seeks solutions to a collection of ordinary questions, equivalent to what truly distinguishes the sanctity of the laity from that of the spiritual, why so few lay individuals were canonized, and to what volume the pursuit of sanctity calls for lay saints to both deny or verify their lay . Six essays search to get well versions for lay sanctity within the lives of early saints reminiscent of Catherine of Sienna and Angela of Foligno. The 5 experiences of twentieth-century figures similar to Elizabeth Leseuer and Jacques and Raissa Maritain recommend the emergence of recent, secular beliefs of lay sanctity.
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We have never met, but our correspondence on questions relating to historical sanctity has been enormously helpful to me. Indeed, from the first beginnings of this project, he has been my best advisor and teacher and the source of unflagging encouragement. Another teacher of mine, Sherry Reames, deserves grateful mention here. Her writings on medieval saints' legends, especially on the Legenda Aurea, and her leadership in promoting hagiographic scholarship worldwide have been an inspiration to me.
Isidore the ploughman. Both sides explored new communal forms. In Catholic circles, St. Frances of Rome's 1440 foundation of a society of laywomen dedicated to God and the poor was followed by the foundations of other lay communities by Bd. Margaret of Ravenna (1505), St. Angela Merici (1540), St. Philip Neri (1595), Bd. Hippolytus Galantini (1619), Mary Ward (1646), and Bd. 43 In the seventeenth century a puritanical Jansenism among Catholics (parallel to pietism among Protestants) was countered by saints like Vincent de Paul (1660) and Francis de Sales (1622), who exhorted the laity to charitable works and who served as spiritual directors to a group of remarkable womenhappily married wives, devoted mothers, resourceful widowsmany of whom became the foundresses of new women's communities.
The political involvement that is actually expected of the laity tends to exclude them from canonization, lest the church's recognition of them be put to partisan uses. Even if the layperson dies a martyr's death, unless the martyrdom is specifically "for the faith," rather than for the sake of justice or charity, for example, he or she cannot easily be admitted to the honors of the altar. The expectation that the life of the servant of God exhibit heroic virtue makes it, moreover, unlikely for penitents and children to be acknowledged as saints.