Rhetorics of Sanctity: Christina of Hane in the Early Modern Period with a Comparison to a Mary Magdalene Legend

This study presents the particular case of the medieval mystic Christina of Hane in the Early Modern transmission to uncover the dynamics of sanctity across traditional period boundaries. It discusses the interest of copying and transmitting the Life of this local saintly figure with a legend on Mary Magdalene’s conversion in the sixteenth century. Christina of Hane’s medieval Life becomes refashioned in a seventeenth-century Flemish text that addresses the religious needs of its time, stressing apolitical forms of devotion such as prayers for the souls in purgatory.