The Making of Saints in Late Antique North Africa

The "Making of Saints" is a phenomenon of central significance to Christianity since a vision-inspired Ambrosius discovered the remains of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius in 386 AD in Milan. In North Africa it seems to have taken on an extremely interesting form that makes Brent D. Shaw speaking of the blood of the martyrs as "the vital force, the kinetic energy powering Christian life in Africa".

This volume contributes to the productively expanding research field of North African Christianity by providing narrative analyses on the one hand and presenting case studies from an archaeological perspective on the other, which allow a comparative perspective of the phenomenon in order to systematically combine them: narrative alone did not "make" a martyr, architectural staging too was needed - the story made the martyr and the staging made the saint. The multidisciplinary approach brings together the most recent results concerning excavations and epigraphy, but also an innovative conceptual understanding of text, space, and - last but not least - religion, in order to examine the social function that the veneration of martyrs had in a longue durée perspective.