"We are only holy to others": Constructing and Contesting Sainthood in the Canonisation Process ofJeanne-Marie de Maillé

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My research will explore the role of normative power structures and communal judgements in producing and controlling medieval identities. It will do so by examining the identity of a medieval saint at the intersection of community identification and the formal framework of official authorisation. I will explore the existence of a 'discourse of sanctity' - a shared understanding of the conventions of sainthood - and how its expression in narrative formulations could construct specific identities (saintly or otherwise)within a canonisation trial. I will consider how far it is the juridico-legal format (as a system of reifying and formalising meaning captured from diffuse contexts) that gives these performances their social importance, and whether the use of rhetorical devices by deponents can show how broad sections of the population could employ technologies of power (legal processes, codification, authorisation) for their own purposes, such as promulgating a particular interpretation of sanctity.