Most papers originally presented at a 3-day conference held July 2004 at the University of Edinburgh, to mark Gary Dickson's retirement from its Department of History.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary material / D. Higgs Strickland -- The women behind their saints: Dominican women’s promotion of the cults of their religious companions / Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner -- Gender trouble in paradise: The problem of the liturgical virgo / Felice Lifshitz -- Saint Triduana of Restalrig? Locating a saint and her cult in late medieval Lothian and beyond / Helen Brown -- The architectural framework for the cults of saints: Some scottish examples / Richard Fawcett -- The holy and the unholy: Analogies for the numinous in later medieval art -- The measure of the virgin’s foot / Michael Bury -- Living image of pity: Mimetic violence, peace-making and salvific spectacle in the flagellant processions of the later Middle Ages / Mitchell B. Merback -- Perceptions of relics: Civic religion in late medieval Bruges / Andrew Brown -- Constructing anglo-saxon sanctity: Tradition, innovation and Saint Guthlac / Alaric Hall -- List of contributors / D. Higgs Strickland -- Index / D. Higgs Strickland.

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Assembled on the occasion of Gary Dickson's retirement from the University of Edinburgh following a distinguished career as an internationally acclaimed scholar of medieval social and religious history, this volume contains contributions by both established and newer scholars inspired by Dickson’s particular interests in medieval popular religion, including ‘religious enthusiasm’. Together, the essays comprise a comprehensive and rich investigation of the idea of sanctity and its many medieval manifestations across time (fifth through fifteenth centuries) and in different geographical locations (England, Scotland, France, Italy, the Low Countries). By approaching the theme of sanctity from multiple disciplinary perspectives, this highly original collection pushes forward current academic thinking about medieval hagiography, iconography, social history, women's studies, and architectural history.