Cults of saints originated in Late Antiquity, when the graves of holy men and women became holy places of veneration and the sites of eventual shrines and churches. Worshippers made pilgrimages to these sites, where the intercession and pity of the once-human saints was thought to be obtained. Texts devoted to relating the lives of these saints developed into a form collectively referred to as “hagiography” (from the Greek hagio – “saint” and –graph “writing”). One early text is the late fourth-century vita (life) of St. Martin of Tours by Sulpicius Severus. This work, which became a prototype for the form, introduces the common theme of the saint's good deeds and miracles that show his power.

Hagiographic texts served three main functions: to promote the cult; to attract pilgrims; and, ultimately, to empower and enrich the religious institutions that grew up around the saint. To serve these functions, the details of a saint's life were obscured in favor of creating an easily recognizable textual form. Thus, hagiography often seems oddly ahistorical and can easily be classified into two types: the vita and the passio. The vita, using Sulpicius' life of St. Martin as a prototypical example, relates the saint's noble birth, life, and miracles both in life and posthumous. A passio, on the other hand, shows the saint nobly resisting persecution, undergoing torture, performing miracles and the occasional conversion, and finally suffering death for Christ, usually by beheading (in the manner of St. Paul). Hagiographic texts were used by the medieval Church as private reading for monks and nuns, for recital in the monastic refectory during meals, or in connection with the liturgy, usually during Nocturns on the vigil of the saint's feast.

Christianity came to England in 597 when hagiography was still in its formative stages. Thus when a particularly English form of Latin hagiography arose at the end of the seventh century, it is no surprise that it followed the forms and concerns developed closer to Rome. However, the subjects of English hagiography were not Latin saints, but native, English ones. The hagiographic production of anonymous writers (prose Vita S. Cuthberti), Bede (poetic Vita S. Cuthberti), and Felix of Crowland (Vita S. Guthlaci) owe much to their exemplars (Vita S. Martini in the case of the Bishop Cuthbert, and Vita S. Antonii of Athanasius, the archetypal vita for eremitic saints, for Guthlac). However in-line these texts were with their exemplars, though, it could not obscure the fact that these saints were local, and thus the existence and promotion of their cults proclaimed to Christendom the strength of the English Church. Saint Cuthbert's fame spread to the Continent; perhaps this international reputation was what led Bede to rework the earlier, anonymous prose vita of Cuthbert into poetic verse, stripping away all local detail in the process. This act, which seems odd to a modern audience, would have in fact elevated Cuthbert's standing as a powerful saint to the rest of the Christian community.

Other Latin hagiographic efforts by early eighth-century English writers were not as classically influenced as Bede's. An anonymous monk of Whitby wrote a vita of Gregory the Great (the pope responsible for the conversion of the English); however, he knew next to nothing about Gregory, so the vita is a pastiche of extravagant praise, Scriptural passages, references to Gregory's writing, and a preposterous fable or two. Stephen of Ripon was not hindered by lack of detail when writing Vita S. Wilfridi. This vita is, in fact, a very political and partisan work that described the tempestuous career of Bishop Wilfrid, who traveled to Rome for papal intercession more than once when a Northumbrian king or Church council removed him from his see. Additionally, several hagiographic works by Alcuin (a Northumbrian cleric writing in the court of Charlemagne) are extant, as are many Continental texts that were copied into English manuscripts.

After the blossoming of Anglo-Latin hagiography in eighth-century Northumbria, virtually no Latin hagiography was produced in England for two hundred years. The rebirth of the form occurred during the reign of Athelstan (924/5-39), and most produced texts had the explicit purpose of supporting relic cults. For example, Bishop Athelwold was most likely the guiding force behind the hagiographical texts produced about St. Swithun of Winchester in the years after the translation of Swithun's relics from the outside to the inside of the Old Minster in 971. As a result of these textual and other promotions, the cult of St. Swithun, an obscure ninth-century bishop, grew to a status that enabled the rebuilding of the cathedral with an elaborate shrine. Athelwold himself became the subject of a hagiographic memorial upon his death: Wulfstan, the Winchester precentor, wrote a vita upon the occasion of Athelwold's translation to the Minster in 996.

Most of the significant Latin hagiography in the later Anglo-Saxon period was produced by foreign clerics living in or visiting England. Lantfred, a Frankish cleric, was a major hagiographer of St. Swithun; Abbo of Fleury wrote the Passio S. Eadmundi after an extended visit to England. Alfric, a native Anglo-Saxon abbot and prolific hagiographer, wrote Latin epitomes of both Lantfred's work on Swithun and Wulfstan's work on Athelwold, and he translated Abbo's passio of King Edmund. Byrhtferth of Ramsey wrote a bit more in Latin: he wrote a passio of the Kentish royal saints Athelred and Athelberht upon their translation to Ramsey in 992 and a long vita on the monastic reformer Oswald. However, these and several other odd contributions aside, the paucity of Latin hagiography in this period was directly related to the limited Latinity of even the most educated clerics.

While the Latin hagiographic production was minimal during the late Anglo-Saxon period, the production of vernacular hagiography was remarkable. In this corpus, the lives of foreign and “traditional” saints predominate; obviously, the translations were designed to introduce and educate English readers with little or no Latin education to the veneration of the major saints of Christianity. This interpretation is supported by Alfric of Eynsham, the author of over two-thirds of the extant vernacular hagiographic texts. In the preface to his primary hagiographic collection, his Lives of Saints, he states that he includes only saints who are honored by monks in their offices. Alfric is also the author of two collections of Catholic Homilies, which in total contain 25 sermons that focus on the lives of saints, with special emphasis on the apostles. Some of these are true homilies that focus on the exposition of a pericope (Biblical text) and “preach” to an audience. As Alfric's style developed, it became less hortatory and more contemplative; his life of St. Cuthbert (the first in his distinctive alliterative style) has more in common with his later hagiography than the other texts in the Catholic Homilies. Most of this later hagiography can be found in his Lives of Saints collection. While these translations focus on saints honored by monastic remembrance, they also concentrate on the lives of martyrs – valuable figures of veneration for both their intercessory powers and for their ability to inspire those with flagging faith. Therefore, many of the texts contained in the Lives of Saints are passiones; however, several confessor saints (i.e., saints postdating the Age of Persecutions) and five English saints are represented. In addition, the extant manuscripts of the Lives of Saints all contain some non-hagiographic and non-Alfrician material – much to Alfric's probable discomfort as he concluded his preface with the devout wish that nothing be added to or altered in his collection.

Scholars examining Alfric's vernacular hagiography have traditionally focused on three major areas of exploration: his source material; his purpose and audience; and his theological orthodoxy. While scholars once assumed that Alfric used a wide variety of source materials for his hagiographic translations, Patrick Zettel (1982) has shown that nearly all but the lives of English saints are based upon the vitae contained within a two-volume Latin legendary compiled not long after 877 in France or Flanders. All extant copies, however, are English in provenance; the work is referred to as the Cotton-Corpus legendary, referencing the manuscripts that make up the earliest surviving recension (BL, Cotton Nero E. i, parts i and ii, and CCCC 9). One of the major contributions that this source identification has given Alfrician scholarship to date is the ability to answer questions of inclusion; for example, the lack of a life of St. Matthias (the apostle) in the Cotton-Corpus legendary goes a long way toward explaining why Alfric had no life of this important saint in his Lives of Saints (see Peter Jackson and Michael Lapidge, “The Contents of the Cotton-Corpus Legendary”, and Michael Lapidge, “Alfric's Sanctorale”, in Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints' Lives and Their Contexts, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Albany: State U of New York P, 1996)). Yet Alfric's collection was not a slavish translation of the Cotton-Corpus legendary. While his focus was on saints that had universal veneration throughout Christendom, Alfric did include the lives of five English saints: Alban (treated by Alfric as English), King Oswald, King Edmund, Athelthryth, and Swithun. Alban, Britain's protomartyr, would have been included in the Cotton-Corpus legendary; however, for the other saints, Alfric was obliged to search out alternative sources. He found Bede useful for Oswald and Athelthryth; Abbo of Fleury for King Edmund and Lantfred for Swithun.

Another major question scholars have addressed is Alfric's purpose in compiling his hagiographic collection. In his preface, Alfric relates that his work was undertaken at the request of Ealdorman Athelweard and his son, Athelmar. Milton McC. Gatch has suggested that Athelweard wished to imitate some monastic practices in his household's devotions (1977: 48-9); this supposition is supported by the manuscript (BL Cotton Julius E. vii) texts, which are in the order of the sanctorale (feasts of fixed date) beginning at Christmas. This order has led some to believe that the texts were for liturgical use, but as Peter Clemoes has shown, the collection as a whole is not suited to this type of use. Some of the texts themselves are obviously incompatible with the liturgy: Alfric's life of St. Martin, for example, is about half the length of Beowulf. While this length would have made it difficult for Athelweard to use it even in a modified liturgy, as Gatch suggests, it does not preclude other secular uses – for example, as a text more suited to public, oral performance. This idea is supported by the fact that all of Alfric's hagiographic texts in the Lives of Saints are written in his characteristic alliterative style, making them suitable for effective oral delivery.

Alfric's translation style and method, as many scholars have remarked, is particularly orthodox. In his few rhetorical additions to his source, as in his passio of St. George, he contrasts the foolish narratives that heretics would recount with his true, accurate rendition. In his Old English addendum to the preface of his second series of Catholic Homilies, Alfric explains his resistance to Athelweard's request for a life of St. Thomas – he could not find a text that he deemed accurate enough to translate. He even went so far as to revise earlier works, like his life of St. Martin, upon his discovery of more accurate source material. Most scholars agree with Dorothy Whitelock's assessment of Alfric's aims: his main goal in adapting hagiographic material was to simplify the text and to create an understandable, theologically sound narrative for his readers and/or listeners.

The most famous Anglo-Saxon hagiographic words are probably five poetic texts contained within the Exeter and Vercelli manuscripts. These texts, Elene, Andreas (Vercelli Book), Juliana, and Guthlac A and B (Exeter Book) are the remains of what might have been a strong tradition in vernacular verse hagiography. It is not known what prompted hagiographers to versify these legends; however, the manuscript location suggests that these texts were for monastic rather than lay use, since both the Exeter and Vercelli Books were compiled for use in a religious community. These texts differ from the prose hagiography written by Alfric and others in several key ways. Prose hagiographers, especially Alfric, usually condensed their exemplar texts; they rarely added anything to them. The writers of verse hagiography, on the other hand, felt freer to add to their texts. For example, in Elene, the poet adds a battle scene between Constantine and the Huns (ll. 109-52) and Elene'e voyage to the “land of the Greeks” (Judea, 225-63). These accretions, combined with the use of an Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition that emphasizes warrior imagery and heroism, leads many scholars to hypothesize that verse hagiographers were actively engaged in a process of making these tales accessible to an Anglo-Saxon audience.

Two of these five verse hagiographic texts end with a pious passage into which the name CYNEWULF (or CYNWULF) is inserted with runes. Thus Elene and Juliana are connected to the non-hagiographic Fates of the Apostles and Christ II, the other two poems that contain the acrostic signature. Two of these concluding passages (Juliana and Fates) ask the reader to pray for the author; all of the passages share the themes of mutability and the end of the world. Cynewulf himself has not been definitively identified; scholars now say only that these poems with his signature were possibly written between 750 and 850. His dialect seems to be Anglian, and more likely of the Midlands than of Northumbria. Guthlac B (which is missing its final lines, and so perhaps a verse signature) may be also part of the Cynewulfian canon (see R. D. Fulk, “Cynewulf: Canon, dialect, and date”, in Cynewulf: Basic Readings, ed. Robert E. Bjork (New York: Garland, 1996) 3-21).

Elene, Juliana, Andreas, and Guthlac A and B are all quite different in terms of hagiographic style and indicate a strong, varied tradition of verse hagiography in Anglo-Saxon England. Elene features the search for the True Cross, leading the saint, Constantine's mother, to Jerusalem in search of it. Juliana, on the other hand, is a classic virgin martyr's tale with an extended verbal sparring match between the saint and a demon at its heart. Andreas heroically dramatizes the plight of the apostles Matheus (St. Matthew) and Andreas (St. Andrew) in the land of the man-eating Mermedonians. Finally, Guthlac A and B illustrate that even the same subject can inspire vastly different hagiographic treatments. Guthlac A, the earlier of the two Guthlac poems, has the native English Guthac's temptation by demons at the core of the narrative. Guthac, an eremitic saint, displaced these demons from their hillock in the Mercian fens. In retaliation, they tempt Guthlac to despair and to return to the ways of the world – or at least to the ways of self-indulgent monks. Guthlac B, on the other hand, moves quickly over demonic temptation and focuses on Guthlac's last conversation with Beccel, his servant. Together, these five pieces, while vastly different in hagiographic subject matter and treatment, represent an Anglo-Saxon literary culture that could merge heroic concerns and confrontations with religious verse.

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