Chastity Models in the Legenda Aurea and in the Sermones de Sanctis of Jacobus de Voragine

Abstract

The Sermones de sanctis of Jacobus de Voragine is not an independent text but the last written link of a communicative chain that starts with the holy figurae of the Legenda aurea and is completed with a final speech from a preacher to his audience. Chastity is represented in this hagiographical material, which is closely connected to the most important saints of the Dominican calendar, through absolute models that are removed from everyday experience: these models need to be interpreted by a preacher's spoken words and to be illustrated with a choice of exempla to reach laypeople effectively.