The question of sanctity and the cult of saints has been the subject of study for a long time throughout western Christianity. Major collective works have recently been dedicated to such universal saints as Nicholas or Martin. In the Norman medieval worlds, the figure of St Michael and his cult have been the focus of research in relation to the sanctuaries dedicated in his honour, from Mont Saint-Michel and Monte Gargano via the Sacra di San Michele. Beyond this imposing figure, a conference held almost thirty years ago on the saints of medieval Normandy, along with various doctoral studies produced over the last twelve years, have made important contributions to this subject, both in relation to the cult of the Virgin Mary and the ways in which other saints were honoured or exploited. A digital register of Normandy’s Latin hagiography (ReTeHNor), which was the subject of a Tabularia presentation article in 2018, is now complete and today represents an important tool for opening new areas of research.

As an extension of this work, the journal Tabularia is looking to revisit the question of sanctity within all the Norman medieval worlds, with the hope of reinvigorating work in this particular field of research. The aim is to take advantage of new digital tools, as well as to explore questions heretofore little studied, to revisit earlier studies in the light of new work, and to shed light on the particularities of the spaces and societies belonging to the medieval Norman worlds and on the points or links they had in common with regards to models of sanctity and the cult of saints.

There are five thematic strands (click here to see a detailed description of each one), which are not mutually exclusive such that propositions do not have to limit themselves to one theme. Questions relating to these themes can cover the entirety of the Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries – thus, for periods in the Norman worlds before the Normans), over short or long periods. Editions of short texts, extracts or translations are welcome.

1. Saints and models of sanctity

2. • 1 “Anchor points” should be taken to mean anything by which the cult of a saint was fixed or material (...)

   The cult of saints, its forms, and its “anchor points”1

3. Hagiographical sources and their history

4. Communities and saints: on the uses of sanctity

5. Saints and the spaces of the Norman medieval worlds: particularities, common characteristics and links

Article proposals should be sent to the editorial board (craham.tabularia@unicaen.fr). As is standard for this journal, dossiers can be added to progressively over the long term.

Articles should be around 50,000 characters (around 10,000 words) in length, including spaces (but not including abstracts, keywords and final bibliography). They will then be sent for peer review according to the journal’s usual procedures, which are explained here: https://journals.openedition.org/tabularia/289. Editorial norms and recommendations to authors are available here: https://journals.openedition.org/tabularia/288.