Description:
I start by assessing the ambivalent attitude to miracles as good indices of sanctity discernible in the documentation related to the canonization of Saint Francis of Assisi. My study concentrates upon the canonization processes of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (and Thuringia) and Saint Margaret of Hungary. In the documentation of the former, I investigate how the judicial context shaped the miracle accounts of the witnesses. I try to measure the tensions between the inquisitorial expectations of accuracy and the rhetoric of the healing narrative motivated by other factors. In Margaret’s case a micro-historical insight is attempted to the variable stories given of some miracles. The way they were perceived, discussed and reported by the community of nuns and their relatives, coming from the outside to the shrine of the deceased Dominican princess, testifies about a tension between two principles of late medieval sainthood : virtus morum and virtus signorum.