What's in a saint? In some cases clearly a question without straightforward answers, one which might be hotly contested and had to be negotiated. What, consequently, were the processes underlying the canonisation of men and women perceived to have traversed the boundary between the earthly and the divine in medieval Europe? And what role did saints and the miracles attributed to them play in the everyday life of medieval society? These are just some of the questions addressed by Sari Katajala-Peltomaa in her intriguing study of sainthood in the later Middle Ages, which treats a fascinating topic and adds an interesting dimension to its scholarship. And it is the last of these aspects in particular with which this book is concerned. The relationships between saints and society, the channels of communication between the two worlds, reveal a great deal about ideas and practicalities of devotion of ordinary men and women in the later Middle Ages, and about the interaction of people with saints and with each other within the community.

The study is divided into four main chapters which consider, respectively, the processes of canonisation, the invocation of saints, expressions of gratitude for a saint's successful intervention, such as the undertaking of pilgrimages and fulfilments of other vows, and the recording and memories of miracles. Centred on two case studies, the canonisation processes of Thomas Cantilupe (1307) and Nicholas of Tolentino (1325), the aim of this work is to scrutinise the ways in which miracles and daily life were reconciled by medieval people, and how these two spheres interacted. By following the two saints-in-the-making, the author considers the involvement of men and women at different stages in the recognition and invocation of a saint. They took part in the giving of evidence in the canonisation processes, confirming miracles and thereby providing the crucial testimony which supported an individual's claim to saintliness; they approached saints for help with all manner of problems affecting themselves or those around them; and those cured or otherwise improved individuals displayed their gratitude to their perceived saviours by visiting their shrines and giving gifts. Saints were an essential element in the fabric of medieval society, they became an accepted part of medieval life, and their invocation a public ritual. The discussion of public/private participation in the dealings with medieval saints opens a whole range of interesting question about these spheres in medieval society more generally.

Katajala-Peltomaa proposes a thorough, involved and convincing reading of the evidence, mainly the witness reports contained in the canonisation records; the records of individual canonisation processes corroborate the thorough scrutiny to which candidates for the ethereal elite were subjected, including the interrogation of witnesses to miracles attributed to an individual. This often staggeringly detailed material, eyewitness accounts of tragedies and miracles, of private grief and public spectacle, gives a voice to those who, throughout the medieval period, all too often remain silent. The interaction with the saint is here described as a ‘social strategy’, a concept which is also extended to the practice of the gift-giving which was part of the fulfilment of the votum: thus the votive offering is likened to the reciprocal obligation and the paying of homage in feudal society, situating the relationship that people had with saints firmly within related spheres.

Both men and women were involved at every stage of interaction with a saint, and both played a role in his or her making. Women, while outnumbered by men, often formed a notable proportion of those interrogated in the canonisation process, although their testimony was on occasion regarded with some suspicion by the authorities – as indeed was that of poor people in general, whose motives for providing testimony were sometimes mistrusted. Women also represented a considerable number of those who approached saints, and not infrequently in connection with worries or ailments associated directly, perhaps naturally, with what was regarded as the female sphere, namely childbirth and the wellbeing of infants and children, areas in which men are less likely to appear. In analysing the reasons, specific illnesses or worries brought forward to saints by men and women, then, perhaps unsurprisingly certain patterns emerge which divide the sexes. Overall, the examples presented here to illustrate these various points present a rich and colourful spectacle of medieval life, ideas, fears and beliefs.

I have so far failed to address one major aspect of this study, namely the ‘gendered interaction’ with the saint in later medieval Europe and ‘the way in which gender was constructed in the depositions of the canonisation processes’. Katajala-Peltomaa explains that the ‘construction of masculinity and femininity were – and are – essential elements in forming the hierarchies, identities, and modes of thought of any given culture’; the application of gender theory in this particular context, however, is not always entirely convincing, nor, I would argue, necessary, and one cannot help but wonder whether this element really benefits the discussion overall sufficiently to justify its inclusion or whether the study is, in this respect alone, perhaps trying to do too much.

Much more intriguing, and here addressed in an authoritative way, is the examination of people's direct, often very personal, dealings with saints, the ritual of this performance, the choice of saint and offering, the interaction between individuals, and what all of this can tell us about medieval society and lay religiosity more generally; all of which issues are of great interest to scholars of the social Church in medieval Europe.