Saints,+Lives

**Saints, Lives**


Saints where christian heroes that maintained and spread the christian faith. The saints originated in the profound respect or reverence of early martyrs. Spiritual asceticism, a life of prayer and poverty, made them examples of christian heroes. Writers started to write biography's of like "Life of St. Martin" about a beloved monk and early bishop. The 800s and 900s was considered the golden age because most of the biography's were written at this time to remember missionaries, women saints and founders of monasteries.

After saints were gone, people collected their bones, crosses, or pieces of clothing. This stuff is called relics. People thought these relics had supernatural powers. Relics were works of art made of gold, silver, ivory, and encrusted with precious stone. Relics of famous saints attracted pilgrims and gifts of money and land. The veneration or profound respect or reverence of relics was very popular in the middle ages. Memorial rites were performed in tombs of venerated Christians like ST.Peter in Rome.

Works Cited
 * “File:Chrodegang.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundations, 16 Sept. 2007. Web. 1 Apr. 2010. .
 * “Lives of Saints.” The Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. William Chester Jordan. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner’s Son, 1996. 32-33. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.
 * “Relics.” The Middles Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. William Chester Jordan. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996. 6. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.

JW