The Golden Legend

As a lay person on many levels-- not a scholar of religious studies, not a scholar of medieval history-- this was still a fascinating book to read. It was compiled in the 13th century and is made up a collection of the legends and stories that rose up about the saints, largely outside of scripture. de Voragine attempts to help the reader distinguish between the true and false-- noting which stories are clearly apocryphal and which are (in his opinion) likely to be the truth. He tries to build a link between the saints' names and the stories about their lives (often to inadvertently funny results to the modern reader). It reads as an amalgamation of folklore, older traditions, local myth and wishful thinking tied up into an often astonishing collection of stories. I will admit that reading the whole thing end-to-end starts to get a little bit different different same same with all the stories. I think that a friend of mine had the best strategy with this work-- reading one or two of the stories before you go to bed at night. On the other hand, that could lead to some mighty disturbing nightmares. I'll probably give myself some time before I pick up Volume 2. Certain themes come back again and again-- joyful martyrdom, the willingness of the saints to die, attempts to explain local legend in the light of saints and near-scientific attempts to reconcile the system of the world (there is a pretty great section late in the book that talks about the different kinds of magic and miracles). To the modern reader, these stories are fantastic, often funny and sometimes thought-provoking, moving and even shocking. I really enjoyed the book and I will confess that I wasn't at all sure that this would be the case. I'm actually glad that I didn't chose the selections-- I think that I would have missed a bit of the pattern-building in the legends if I hadn't read the whole thing.

This is a modern translation of a medieval "lives of the saints". One of the most widely read books of the middle ages it is a series of stories that may be read in any order. Factual or not the biographies are very rich literature. Many would be fantastic bed time stories for children or adults. Students and lovers of European art will appreciate many of the themes from a wide variety of works drawn from this book. Just great reading! Get Volume 2 as well.

Although I cannot speak to the accuracy of the translation, I recommend this work of the Middle Ages for anyone with a more-than-passing curiosity about the cult of saints, and the way legends and stories expand even with previous written source material. The apologetics written about the birth-names of each saint are at times whimsical and at others intriguing. The Church calendar is also given some explanation here, sometimes why a saint's day was moved by the ecclesiastical authorities, unfazed that the person's true birthday or martyrdom was no longer commemorated. There are two volumes, of which this is one.

The Golden Legend by Blessed Jacobus de Voragine wrote about saints that I heard and never heard while I was growing up with my Catholic Faith. It was interesting to learn saints with names that I never knew of: St. Quentin, St. Mary of Egypt, and St. Praxedes. The Golden Legend was more than a legend. It was one of the most popular books to be read after the Holy Bible during the Medieval and Renaissance Era.

The Blessed Jacobus's compilation of the miraculous, "Golden Legend" carries you along as it brings you through the image-filled lives of the saints. Crowded, in a most woundrous fashion, with miracles, long martyrdoms, impossible but believable feats, quotable lines, long explanations of extreme intricacy, intriguing dialogue and a most enjoyable theme, it is enjoyable for those who read page after page and enjoy the long story, ending in triumph. It can also be accessible to those who enjoy anecdotes, except here they are pious. They begin the same way, usually--"A friar minor..." or such. It's hard to stop paging through it