In Saints and Society, Donald Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell examine the lives of 864 saints who lived between 1000 and 1700 and the perceptions of sanctity prevalent in late medieval and early modern Europe. They also provide a substantial body of information on the people among whom the saints lived and by whom they came to be venerated. In the first part, the authors give close consideration to what the saints' lives reveal about childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; the impact of religious inspiration upon family bonds; and family influences upon religious behavior. The second part provides a composite picture of piety and its changing configuration in Latin Christendom. With the assistance of statistical analysis, the authors answer questions involving the popular perception of holiness, social class, and gender.

Donald Weinstein, professor emeritus of history at the University of Arizona, is the author of Ambassador from Venice: Pietro Pasqualigo in Libson and Savonarola and Florence. Rudolph M. Bell, professor of history at Rutgers University, is the author of Fate and Honor, Family and Village and Holy Anorexia, also published by the University of Chicago Press.