Celtic Saints Ancient Wisdom Nic Phillips by Nic Phillips B01N6SEMTX instant download after payment.

When we talk about the ‘Lives’ of the Saints, we mean the vitae, the
biographies or to be more precise, hagiographies written usually by clerics
of their cult centre and usually centuries later. The concept of an accurate
recorded history devoid of parable or symbolism would have been alien to
the medieval mind. The aim was not to record accurate day to day details
(although glimpses of these do occur), but rather to show the saints as
idealised models in how to follow the life of Christ. They also often offered
a foundation myth and therefore strengthened the spiritual authority of the
church’s founder. Veneration of church founders can be seen as a
continuation of ancestor worship. The earliest of these Lives appeared after
Christianity was officially sanctioned by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th
Century. These early Lives of St Anthony and St Martin of Tours were
influential in the rise of monasticism and to the hundreds of saints’ Lives
which were written in successive centuries.