"Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not" (Gn 28:16) : Hagiography as a Narrative about Sacred Places
Abstract
According to Simon Ditchfield, transformation of the post-Tridentine hagiography into narration about the history of dissemination of Saint's cult not only in time, but also in space was its distinctive feature. According to Michel de Certeau, the supermacy of space over the time is for hagiography typical.
Sanctitity is interpreted as a quality manifesting in terrestrial world, expieriencing also by body senses: besides Holy Scripture, there other contakt zones of divinity: human body (the prime relic), material object (the secondary relic) and place (not only shrine, but also other external and internal places). An important feature of many Bohemian hagiographical texts from the 17th century is their multiform blending with sacred topography and genres of antiquitates, itineraruim.
Thus, the main character of many stories about sanctity are places and objects, rather than people.