In this concise and well-written study, Dominic Alexander covers ten centuries of Christian hagiography, a daunting task. But he does so effectively by focusing on one particular theme, the relationship between various saints and animals as reflected in the lives of the saints. While this might seem to be a rather narrow area, it is an amazingly rich and widespread topic in the genre. The author clearly states the primary purpose of the study in the introductory chapter: “to determine the purposes of stories and the various influences upon the formation and development of the Christian genre of the saint and animal story” (19). He analyzes hagiographies, places them in their historical context, relates these stories to popular culture as well as patterns in the earlier Christian tradition, and then determines what purposes the animal stories serve. The main themes also include the complicated connection between saints and wilderness (an Edenic tension), the relatively unique situation of Irish saints, repeated stories of hermits and hunters, connections to biblical patterns, and sanctuary offered to animals.

Alexander begins his survey with the fourth- and fifth-century desert ascetics and suggests that these stories, along with several important biblical accounts of animals, provide the foundation for the rest of the tradition. The story of Elijah and the ravens (I Kings 17:6), for example, has the most far-reaching influence. This particular subject of animals serving as agents of God by bringing food to the saint in the wilderness appears in hagiographies from the fourth century throughout the period covered by the author. Irish saints receive fish from otters; early hermits are fed by ravens; the “Elijah topos” stories are foundational.

Another topos Alexander identifies is “the hermit and the hunter.” He dedicates an entire chapter to this idea and weaves it throughout his narrative. The story of Saint Giles, a late seventh-century saint, and the doe is the most widely known. Giles is both fed by the doe, thus a refiguring of Elijah and the raven, and then takes an arrow for her when she is being hunted by a king. From Ireland to Italy, this pattern repeats itself with animals ranging from large boars to delicate rabbits being saved by saints.

A quite different theme emerges in “sainted princesses and goose resurrections.” Many of these accounts are related to western and northern European folklore, including stories of the Norse god Thor. These stories appear initially in the tenth century, becoming quite prominent in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Alexander suggests that this reflects a period when the Church was “truly beginning to spread throughout the countryside … with the widespread imposition of Church time on labour, disrupting rhythms of peasant agriculture that dated back a thousand years or more” (111). Geese stories, and other resurrection-of-animal accounts, bridge cultures as the saints' lives integrate with and replace peasant folklore.

The final organizational approach Alexander includes is geographic and identifies the Irish pattern as somewhat unique. This topos includes a theme of the saint's command over animals in many instances. It is important to recognize this aspect of the stories with animals. The author makes it clear that a hierarchy is in place and that the saint's power over animals is a significant theme.

Alexander takes into account the “social and political as well as the monastic and spiritual contexts” in his analysis. This is particularly evident in his concluding chapter when he examines the complex and popular vitae of Francis of Assisi. Since this saint is recognized by many to be the ultimate patron saint of animals, it makes sense for Alexander to conclude his work with such a pivotal figure. It is clear that the social and economic worlds have changed when viewing Francis's lives. In earlier stories, for example, saints would save animals from a royal hunter; at other points they would bid animals give themselves to the populace for food. They were often immersed in agricultural societies and in nature. By the thirteenth century in central Italy, the commercially developed urban life of a figure such as Francis removes some of the ambiguity from nature. In a telling account, Francis “rescues fish from fishermen and lambs from peasants” in a quite different manner from earlier saints. This “Edenic portrayal” of the human-animal is not necessarily new in Christian hagiographies; saints such as Paul the hermit removed themselves from the temptations of human culture by seclusion in the wilderness among the wild animals. Still, Francis's “natural mysticism” is something new that could not have arisen prior to the particular time and place of his life and the various tellings of it.

While the study is strong on most levels, there are a couple of disappointments. First, gender analysis is not as strong as it could be in the chapters that include female saints and princesses. Are their relationships to animals mediated in different ways since they are female saints? If the hagiographies are recorded by males, how does this influence the telling of the stories and how does it place the animals in the context of female saints? Alexander does touch on gender when he addresses the stories of Saint Brigit, but a deeper analysis would be helpful. Second, the last chapter ends rather abruptly, and the reader would benefit from some more analysis of the shifting sands of the thirteenth century as exemplified by the Francis hagiographies. The author presents these transformations of culture, ergo of the lives of saints, briefly, but it could be elaborated further.

With those two minor critiques aside, this is a well-done study of the role of hagiographies in the Middle Ages. The author takes into account the social and political contexts, the shifting impact of folklore in different geographic and cultural areas, and the influence of stories from the Christian tradition. He obviously is deeply familiar with an amazing breadth of hagiographic literature from the period. The sheer volume of saints' lives that he presents is worth the read. Finally, it should be mentioned that the topic of animals is an increasingly important consideration in the analysis of religious histories, as it is in the broader and growing field of cultural studies of animals. In short, this is a valuable resource for historians of the Middle Ages or for the history of Christianity.