Excerpt from The Golden Legend: Lives of the Saints The title of this volume - a translation of the Latin words "Legenda Aurea" -recalls the custom in medieval churches and monasteries of gathering into a large volume records of the lives and deaths of saintly personages, and reading them aloud according as the ecclesiastical year brought round their memorial days. The reading due on a particular day would be the "legenda" {scilicet "lectio"); and from it the whole volume would be entitled the "legendarium" or (more simply) the "legenda." From the narrative character of these readings, which naturally made a considerable impression on the popular mind, the modern word "legend" gained its circulation and meaning; that its meaning has somewhat deteriorated, implying fiction rather than fact, is not surprising; a similar fate befell our word "story" and the French "histoire." The "legendae" of particular churches or monasteries would naturally be of local and limited scope. The thirteenth century - an age of mental awakening - demanded something of wider range. There was a public eager for an encyclopedic volume which should deal in attractive style with the saints of all times and places -their deeds, sufferings, and miracles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.

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