Unsaintly Composure? The Old English Saint Eustace and Models of Holiness in Early Medieval England

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses literary models of holiness from early medieval England. It focuses on the behaviours associated with both the iconic and fallible modes of sainthood, using the anonymous Old English Passion of St Eustace as a case study. It outlines how scholarship on early medieval vernacular hagiography has shaped our understanding of sainthood to align ‘saintly’ behaviour with iconic models of holiness, and then argues that the translator of the Old English Eustace recognized the importance of Eustace’s fallibility. A comparison with the Latin source reveals how the translator intentionally cast Eustace as a human, sinful, and fallible saint for rhetorical effect: to model how to cope with everyday hardship and despair, to demonstrate the importance of penance for redemption, and to show the real-life working of God’s grace. In doing so, this article questions modern scholarly parameters of acceptable medieval models of holy behaviour.