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With hagiography as a site of fantasy and didacticism, disruptive bodies could not only 'hide in plain sight' but explore and push the boundaries on how holiness could be defined and reconstructed. This thesis argues that the saint's body acts as a mirror, performing as both a model of imitation and a reflection of social structures and constraints. The wide dissemination and popularity of saints' lives throughout medieval Europe reflects the importance of the saint in the clerical and lay communities. By studying vernacular saints' lives from the Gilte Legende (c. 1438) and popular English hagiographers, such as John Lydgate and Osbern Bokenham, my research provides a nuanced and historical-sensitive reading of Luce Irigaray's argument that dominant discourse is male-gendered due to the appropriation of the divine in man's image. I have examined a range of hagiographies, from male kings to virgin martyrs, mother saints to trans* saints, alongside key trends in devotional practices, such as the feminisation of Christ's body and the meditation of Mary as a model of sacrifice. I have addressed the gendered frameworks of the period. In particular, the construction of the male body as default and the female body as secondary and humoral theory, which determined the female body as a porous, opened space in need of protection against internal and external sin. I also engage with key scholarship in the field from Caroline Walker Bynum, Amy Hollywood, and Karma Lochrie. My research concludes that the saint's body is envisioned as a site of identification for the shared flesh of Mary and Christ. This flesh can be read as a 'genre' - an embodied text that dramatizes and disrupts gendered structures, disconnected from gendered binarism it emulates the one-sex body model of the middle ages.

This doctoral dissertation investigates the writings of the Venerable Bede (673-735) in the context of miracles and the miraculous. It begins by exploring the patristic tradition through which he developed his own historical and hagiographical work, particularly the thought of Gregory the Great in the context of doubt and Augustine of Hippo regarding history and truth. It then suggests that Bede had a particular affinity for the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as models for the writing of specifically ecclesiastical history. The use of sources to attest miracle narratives in six hagiographies known to Bede from Late Antiquity are explored before applying this knowledge to Bede and five of his early Insular contemporaries. The research is rounded off by a discussion of Bede’s use of miracles in the context of reform, particularly his desire to provide adequate pastoral care through his understanding of the ideal bishop best exemplified by Cuthbert and John of Beverley. By examining Bede and the miraculous not only through the lens of his predecessors but also among his contemporaries, this thesis ultimately positions Bede as an innovative Anglo-Saxon scholar, though one clearly conscious of the traditions within which he was working.

The ordines romani are products of a ninth-century attempt to correct liturgy across Europe. Hitherto, scholarship has almost exclusively focused on them as sources for the practices of the city of Rome, narrowly defined, disregarding how they were received creatively and reinterpreted in a set of fascinating manuscripts which do not easily fit into traditional categories. This thesis re-envisages these special texts as valuable testimonies of intent and principle. In the past few decades of scholarship, it has been made very clear that what occurred under the Carolingians in the liturgy did not involve the imposition of the Roman rite from above. What was ‘Roman’ and ‘correct’ was decided by individuals, each in their own case, and they created and edited texts for what they needed. These individuals were part of intensive networks of exchange, and, broadly, they agreed on what they were attempting to accomplish. Nevertheless, depending on their own formation, and the atmosphere of their diocese, the same ritual content could be interpreted in numerous different ways. Ultimately, this thesis aims to demonstrate the usefulness of applying new techniques of assessing liturgical manuscripts, as total witnesses whose texts interpret each other, to the ninth century. Each of the ordo romanus manuscripts of the ninth century preserves a fascinating glimpse into the process of working out what ‘correct’ liturgy looked like, by people intensely invested in that proposition. Through them, we can reconceptualise the Carolingian achievement in liturgy, more sympathetically to the great diversity on the ground, but also to the broader goals which united all of these celebrants and intellectuals. In these texts, we can see how the Carolingians really understood the Roman practices they revered, and how they brought this special holiness to their own cathedrals and monasteries through richly creative re-enactment, not thoughtless replication.

This thesis focuses on strengthening the Christian presence in the Holy Land that has been in existence for more than 2,000 years. The Christian presence there is not only about maintaining and preserving the holy shrines related to Christianity. It is also about maintaining and preserving the local Christian congregations and the Christian communities located in Palestine and Israel. These groups have had a series of challenges resulting in a critical decline in the Christian population. The research presented here applies a SWOT analysis to the history, current reality of the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the challenges that influence its future. The benefit of using this approach allows for a concrete analysis of the problems that face the Christian community from the Palestinian-Israel conflict, economic instability, social problems, and the Christian cultural predicament, identified from the literature. The outcome of the analysis is translated into strategic solutions and actions that can be incorporated in programmes and projects to be implemented within, and by, the local Christian communities. These strategic solutions aim to revitalise the indigenous Christian presence in Palestine and Israel and encourage the development of their social, political, and cultural existence, with the hope of obtaining justice, peace and reconciliation.

This thesis seeks to illustrate the substantial contribution which John Owen, Bishop of St. David's, made to the campaign against the disestablishment of the Anglican Church within Wales, and the foundation of the Church in Wales. Owen's significant contribution to this important period within Welsh ecclesiastical history has not been acknowledged. This thesis demonstrates that Owen played an invaluable role not only in opposing the various measures which sought to disestablish, disendow and dismember the Anglican Church, but also in preparing the Church for its new disestablished status following the successful passing of the disestablishment measure in 1914. The thesis draws on the extensive pamphlet material which was published by Owen during his episcopacy, a resource which has largely remained unused, which provides the basis for the distinctive voice which he provided during this period of significant religious and political change. Through the substantial use of these materials, together with other contemporary and scholarly work, it is clear that Owen's significant involvement in the debates was a crucial element of the Church's response to its opponents. Owen vigorously demonstrated through political argument and factual detail, the Church's position in respect of a wide range of issues, which encompassed the disestablishment debate, and he remained committed to facilitating a positive beginning for the Church upon its disestablishment in 1920. Through the exploration of Owen's life and work, this thesis provides insight into the disestablishment campaign from an Anglican perspective, it offers new insight into the history of the foundation of the Church in Wales, and is a contribution to the history of Christianity in Wales in the twentieth century.