saint's life
1
9.8
- noun
- /seɪnts laɪf/
- Literature
- Scholars such as Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg have discovered that, unlike many other sources of the Middle Ages, saints' lives focus a great deal of attention on women: the vitae are directly concerned with female roles in the Church and society as well as contemporary perceptions, ideals, and valuations of women.
- authors of saints' lives
Examples
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Despite the objections to the dedication of a church in her name, Saint Theophano was remembered in the Constantinopolitan synaxarion on December 16 and is the subject of a saint's life.
Academic text (1997) -
Two early texts confirm this supposition and suggest a conscious effort on the part of authors of medieval saints' lives to give their narratives the theological weight of the Gospels and of the work of the Fathers.
Academic text (2002) -
We have solid evidence to suppose, then, that the medieval authors of saints' lives understood their narratives as fully theological works.
Academic text (2002) -
The final image in this illustrated series devoted to the saint's life depicts Crowland Abbey.
Academic text (1999) -
Yet in recounting the saint's life, both authors clearly sought to respond, though with different narrative strategies and in shifting political circumstances, to what men such as Damian regarded as inappropriate extraclaustral activities.
Academic text (2005) -
While depictions of the Baptist's youthful retreat into the wilderness were not uncommon in Florence, they had always been restricted to public narrative cycles of the saint's life.
Academic text (2008) -
In an author's preface to his life of Rabanus, Rudolf clearly presents the written narratives of saints' lives as a theological genre, similar to Scripture and, indeed, a continuation of it.
Academic text (2002) -
We know from other sources—albeit exclusively saints’ lives and chronicles—that Gregory and his successors bestowed those rights to other heads of religious houses and to wandering preachers.
Academic text (2018) -
The book provided an inspiring account of the saint's life, highlighting his virtues and miracles.
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Many believers study the saint's life to deepen their faith and understand the values he exemplified.
Synonyms
163
2.6
A written account of a person's life and important events
161
5.6
A written story about a person's events and experiences
1
9.9
A book in Eastern Christian churches that contains short lives of saints and their feast days
How Detailed
Surface Forms
Morphology
saint's + life
The phrase is fully compositional: 'saint's' denotes belonging to a saint and 'life' can mean an account of a person's life, so together they naturally mean a (written) account of a saint's life. This possessive + noun pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Saint's life comes from old church stories. People wrote about a saint's life, telling their good deeds and 'miracles' so readers would learn and be inspired. So today saint's life means a written 'biography' of a saint meant to 'inspire faith'.