Presenting the Sister Saints of Ely, or Using Kinship to Increase a Monastery's Status as a Cult Center

Abstract

At the time of the Norman Conquest, the monastery of Ely in Cambridgeshire was the second wealthiest in England, holding significant lands, boasting royal patrons, and housing a number of Benedictine monks. To augment its status as a cult center, the monastery developed a genealogical narrative about their founder, AEthelthryth, which included four sister saints, two nieces, and a great-niece. This essay considers how the narrative of kinship was established, how it was maintained throughout the later medieval period, and why the monastic center felt compelled to augment the cult of AEthelthryth with the smaller cults of her sisters. This survey demonstrates not only the means by which audiences came to know the saints venerated at Ely, but it also illustrates how one might investigate the rhetorical strategies by which a monastery could develop its status as a cult center and compete with rival houses for pilgrims, money, and benefactors.