From an Experiencer to a Saintly Man: Losing Biography, Gaining Hagiography in the Accounts of Marian Apparitions in Early Modern Poland

Abstract

Tomasz Wiślicz, for his part, focuses on the apparitions of Virgin Mary in the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in his article ‘From an Experiencer to a Saintly Man: Losing Biography, Gaining Hagiography in the Accounts of Marian Apparitions in Early Modern Poland’. By using devotional prints and manuscripts related to Marian shrines, Wiślicz examines the transformation and use of the life stories of visionaries who gave rise to the shrines. He finds that popularity among pilgrims to the shrines made the life stories become more detailed and hagiographic serving the needs of pastoral care, especially of people of the lower strata.