Bernard of Angers: Liber Miraculorum Sanctae Fidis

Bernard, master of the cathedral school of Angers, wrote this book of the miracles of Saint Faith, the young martyr of Agen whose relics were kept at the abbey of Conques in the Rouergue. In a dedicatory letter to Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, under whom he had studied, Bernard recalls that while at Chartres he often visited a little church of Saint Faith outside the walls, and that the reports of miracles at Conques were spreading through Europe but were dismissed by many as idle fables. He resolved to go there himself, and the book records the miracles he learned of from witnesses, including healings, the release of prisoners and punishments of those who wronged the saint.

Bernard’s book is one of the most vivid and important miracle collections of the Middle Ages. He made several journeys to Conques and records conversations with the people involved, giving an unusually direct picture of lay life, violence, pilgrimage and the cult of relics in southern France around the year 1000. His initial scepticism about the golden reliquary statue of Faith, which he later accepted, makes the work a key source for the history of images, and the collection was continued by monks of Conques.