Adrian Cornell du Houx

My PhD dissertation (successfully examined in April 2015) analyses a collection of Lives (vitae) of lay saints from western Europe who were neither martyrs nor from a royal family, to find that lay sanctity was a significant phenomenon throughout the eleventh century. Previously historians had assumed that the Gregorian Reform hampered its emergence until the twelfth century. As well as research into local contexts, the thesis focuses on the texts' celebration of pilgrimage and voluntary exile, which are interpreted in terms of both medieval spiritual beliefs and modern theories of ritual.