The biographer of Aelred of Rievaulx and his sources
Ryszard Groń
Uniwersytet Nawarry w Pampelunie , SpainAbstract
The article was written to illustrate the difficulties we encounter when attempting to convey the biography of Aelred, a famous 12th century English abbot of Rievaulx. The difficulties are linked with the fact that Aelred lived in medieval times and his biography was written in the form of a hagiography. This style of writing was very popular in the middle ages and usually served to emphasize the holiness of a person’s life, i.e. to demonstrate an exemplary life of Christian virtues rather than as an attempt to concentrate on biographical details. The latter rather served as points of reference to the person in question and were expressed in hagiographic style, i.e. with focus on models of behavior, achievements and miracles that fit the style, based on examples taken from the Bible and the lives of other popular saints. Written in monastic circles, such works took on the form of biographies of saints and were often written to satisfy a specific cause (T.J. Heffernan). This is the type of biography we are dealing with here. When attempting to convey Aelred’s biography in the contemporary meaning of the term, we must first sift through its hagiographic form and supplement information contained therein with other historical and literary sources. In our case, the attempt was carried out in six points, with focus on: the primary source of Aelred of Rievaulx’s biography, Vita Aelredi (1); its author, Walter Daniel (2); the reasons why this work was written (3); its hagiographic form (4); the work’s internal sources, i.e. sources linked with the author’s own circles (5); as well as outside historical and literary sources of information concerning Aelred (6).
Keywords:
biography and hagiography, Cistercian in British Islands, Aelred of RievaulxReferences
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Uniwersytet Nawarry w Pampelunie
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