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Literature and Theology Advance Access originally published online on November 24, 2007
Literature and Theology 2008 22(1):1-15; doi:10.1093/litthe/frm050
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press 2007; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

From Holy Hostess to Dragon Tamer: The Anomaly of Saint Martha

Martha M. Daas

Department of Foreign Languages, Old Dominion University, USA.

mdaas{at}odi.edu


  Abstract

The official version of the life of Saint Martha depicts her as Christ's hostess and one of his first followers. Her popular appeal, however, stems less from her biblical role, than from her position in medieval legend. In the Middle Ages, Martha is reinvented as a Gallic saint whose most celebrated feat is taming a dragon. It is this legend that has often displaced Martha's original role, both in text and in iconography. Unlike most depictions of female saints, Martha's power derives from her soul, not from her body. The denial of corporeality as the source of holiness defies the traditional role of the mulier sancta. Martha, as depicted in the texts of the Middle Ages, is a holy person, not a holy vessel. In this article, I am positing a third ‘category’ of female saint: one not defined by her corporeality, that is, her virginity or her physical martyrdom, but by her character, which I claim is indicative of the influence of popular spirituality on the more formal teachings of the Christian church.


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