Ronald Finucane’s statement, above, eloquently summarises a point at the heart of this current work. Hagiographies, and particularly the records of posthumous miracles (recorded in miracula), provide fascinating insight into lay religion and practices of belief. The miracula, in their recording of the healing miracles that came about through saintly intercession, also reveal one aspect of the broad spectrum of medieval medical care that was available. Holy healing was a form of healthcare that stood alongside the various forms of worldly medical treatment. What sets miraculous healing apart, of course, is the divine source that was perceived to bring about cure. As Eamon Duffy commented, the saints were seen ‘not primarily as exemplars or soul-friends, but as powerful helpers and healers in time of need’, whether that was spiritual or, as is pertinent here, physical. Miracula, albeit compiled by churchmen, provide unique insights into the practices and experiences of miraculous cure-seeking. These cure-seekers came to the saints with a variety of health complaints, but all with the faith that their petitions could bring about their desired healing.

This book is an in-depth study of experiences of miraculous healing and the cure-seeking process through the lens of Latin miracle accounts produced in England during the twelfth century. It considers the practices involved in seeking and gaining miraculous healing (as portrayed in twelfth-century English hagiography) and analyses both the cure-seekers and their experiences of a cure. A central theme is the extent to which holy healing was perceived to exist within the broader medieval medical sphere. In short, how did cure-seekers experience the cure-seeking processes they underwent, and how was healthcare presented within the hagiographical sources produced in England during this century?

The cults of saints are a recognised feature of the medieval Church. That there were individuals who were marked out for virtue and piety, and who continued to have an impact upon the temporal world posthumously, was taken as a given by both the Church and lay devotees.