149 - Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and Their Religious Milieu

Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century
Saints and Their Religious Milieu
By Richard Kieckhefer
Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1984. 238 pp. $24.95.

This book offers a vivid, carefully nuanced perspective on the piety of fourteenth -century Europe. Kieckhefer contends that the hagiography of the age presents the saints as embodiments of contemporary religious ideals. An examination of biographies and autobiographies of persons recognized for their sanctity will thus reveal the dominant elements of the prevailing spiritual vision.

Kieckhefer chooses three saints as representative of the century: Dorothy of Montau, Peter of Luxembourg, and Clare Gambacorta. He supplements his study of these figures with references to better known saints, such as Henry Suso, Catherine of Siena, and Julian of Norwich. Four prominent themes emerge in the hagiography surrounding these individuals: patience in the face of suffering, devotion to the passion of Christ, penitence, and mystical experience. Kieckhefer argues that together these themes point to a severe spiritual disquietude in the fourteenth century. Preoccupation with heavenly beatitude was matched by an intense discontent with life on this earth. Kieckhefer's study provides a rich resource on late medieval spirituality.

Rebecca H. Weaver
Union Theological Seminary
Richmond, Va.