Servants on Earth : The Death-transcending Social Network of a Saint, as Evidenced by Early Fifteenth-century Swedish Miracle Tales

Abstract: The cult of the saints was a widespread and important element of medieval European society. It is also an area of history where historians’ explanations of events are usually very different from those of the historical actors studied. This thesis is an attempt to find some common ground between them. It examines the interactions between commoners and the non-canonised saint NilsHermansson, bishop of Linköping, in early fifteenth-century Swedish miracle tales. The thesis argues that the cult of the saint functioned as his social network. It further argues that in this network the dead saint functioned as a social actor, that is as someone who acted in society for purposes of his own and who had different relationships to different people. These premises haveproven very fruitful for the understanding of the development, structure and function of the cult, and of what the cult meant to people who took part in it. The bishop’s network included the canons of Linköping, the fellow departed saint Bridget, and many people who were connected to the bishop by patron-client relationships. Viewing the departed saint as a social actor sheds light on the varied and prudent ways in which medieval Swedish commoners interacted with him. The study indicates that the making of vows to the saint may have been regulated by custom in a way thatwas related to the Country Law then in force. There was a remarkable degree of continuity between the social network of the living bishop and his cult after death.