Dedications of Monastic Houses in England and Wales, 1066-1216

This is the first systematic investigation of monastic dedications in England and Wales, a study of considerable importance for students of medieval popular religion and hagiography, for whom information on the popularity of particular patrons and the diffusion of their cults is a subject of particular interest. Each entry provides information on the monastery's foundation, together with details of its dedication, and any variations, fluctuations or changes in the patron saints of the house. Monastic dedications, unlike those of parish churches, have the advantage of being dateable within fairly narrow limits, and are thus a useful starting point for detailed studies of individual cults. The information here is drawn from a variety of sources: documentary (monastic charters and obituary rolls, Gervase of Canterbury's Mappa Mundi and similar lists, and monastic seals), narrative (national and local chronicles and biography), hagiographical (such as the Vitae and miracula of saints), and liturgical (benedictionals and pontificals). It encompasses houses, dependent monasteries, cells, and alien priories of all the major orders: Benedictines, Cluniacs, Augustinians, Premonstratensians, Carthusians and Gilbertines (all Cistercian foundations are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and are therefore excluded); and it covers the period when the vast majority of religious houses in England and Wales were established, between the Norman Conquest and the beginnings of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. ALISON BINNS read history and theology at King's College, Cambridge. She subsequently undertook the research for her doctorate under the direction of Professor Christopher Brooke.