Margaret's Monsters

The various Lives of St. Margaret functioned as a blueprint for a virginal life and supernatural assistance to pregnant women during the dangerous process of labor. This book argues that the monsters Margaret encounters in her narrative are a key element in understanding her importance to her adherents.

Michael E. Heyes is Assistant Professor of Religion at Lycoming College. He has published within the field of monster studies, film, and medieval studies, and his edited volume - Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States - contains contributions to all three topics. He is a general editor of The Journal of Gods and Monsters. This is his first monograph.

Introduction; Chapter 1: The Monastic Margaret: The Life of St. Anthony and Gregory's Dialogues in the Life; Chapter 2: In the Belly of the Beast: Sexual Surrender and Resistance in the Life; Chapter 3: The Devil Made Me Do It - Audience Partitioning and the Life of St. Margaret; Chapter 4: Circumcising Olibrius: Threatening Sexuality and Religious Alterity in the Life of St. Margaret; Chapter 5: Paging Dr. Margaret: Prayers and Pregnancy in the Life of St. Margaret; Conclusion: The Metamorphosis of Monsters