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Hagiography is a biography of a saint and has an ancient history in Christian culture, as well as in other religions. It was used as a propaganda tool to spread Christianity and sanctify people, often including macabre descriptions of martyrdom. The heyday of hagiography was in medieval times, and today, well-researched scholarly works on the lives of saints can still be found. The term is sometimes used to describe a flattering and poorly researched biography.
A hagiography is a biography of a saint. The term is also used to describe the study of saints, although some people prefer to describe the study of saints as hagiology. Hagiographies have an ancient and esteemed history in Christian culture and are also present in many other religious traditions, especially Buddhism and Islam.
The art of hagiography arose in the early Christian church, when it was mainly used as a propaganda tool. The idea was that by spreading information about the lives of saints, Christians could gain converts. The hagiographies were anything but boring historical accounts; they included inspirational stories and created legends and myths about the people in them. Many hagiographies also included macabre descriptions of martyrdom, no doubt to appeal to people of lower feelings.
Besides being used to spread Christianity, hagiographies were also used as a tool to sanctify people. Many prominent church figures and other ecclesiastical authorities commissioned hagiographies of themselves in the hope that they would later be venerated as saints, and this was sometimes successful. In all cases, a hagiography typically emphasized the subject’s courage, intrepid spirit, and Christian faith.
The heyday of hagiography occurred in medieval times, when numerous hagiographies were produced, both individually and in collections. During this era, many people created calendars of saints, and those who could read could learn about a different saint each day; a medieval version of a daily calendar page, so to speak. Many of these calendars have since been canonized, and today there is a calendar of saints’ days in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Although hagiography is treated as somewhat antiquated in the modern era, well-researched scholarly works on the lives of saints can still be found, alongside more traditional hagiographies. Some of these materials are quite interesting, documenting the lives and works of early movers and shakers in the Christian church as well as the activities of more modern saints.
Because a hagiography was typically designed to present its subject in the best possible light, one sometimes hears “hagiography” used as a slang term to describe a secular biography. When used in this sense, a hagiography is a fawning, uncritical, and often poorly researched biography that paints a very flattering picture of its subject, rather than an accurate discussion of someone’s life and works.
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