After all, who doesn't like a good miracle? As 91ŃÇÉ« history Professor Rachel Koopmans, author of the recently published , says, "miracle stories almost always have happy endings."

Although the medieval period did not have a monopoly on miracles – Koopmans says people today believe they continue to occur – there was a specific period of time in which medieval writers fervently recorded them in Latin. The most famous of these are the Thomas Becket miracles. This is what Koopmans calls a "fad" for miracle collecting that lasted about 150 years.

"I'm trying to tell…the story of this big burst," says Koopmans. To do so, she surveyed more than 75 collections, examining how they were generated, circulated and replicated. In the first two chapters of Wonderful to Relate, she looks at the oral circulation and tradition of these miracle stories and how their telling could generate further miracles, then turns to how this mania over recording miracles came about.

Left: Rachel Koopmans

Miracle preserving reached its peak just after the murder of Becket in Canterbury cathedral in 1170, following a disagreement with King Henry II. After King Henry II and his men left the area, the monks allowed pilgrims to visit Becket's tomb. "Afterward, people reported that they were healed by Becket's power, and soon floods of people were coming to Canterbury," says Koopmans. "In 1171, a year or so after Becket's death, monks started collecting these stories. They continued collecting for about five or six years."

Most of the Becket miracles were collected by only two monks – William of Canterbury and Benedict of Peterborough. "They certainly heard many more stories than they actually recorded. Reading the collections, you get a sense of an incredible mob scene and huge excitement in Canterbury cathedral in those years after Becket's murder."

There were tales of miracles involving blind people being able to see, pregnant women having difficulty giving birth but still delivering healthy infants, accidents in which people avoided death, insane people being cured and even animals, such as sick cows, being healed. Even King Henry eventually visited Becket's tomb, apologizing and recognizing him as a miracle-working saint.

"There is a period in which dozens of English monks wrote down thousands of miracle stories and then that impulse to record miracle stories mostly disappears," says Koopmans. "Why would 12th-century monks put in all that effort to record so many very personal and often very earthy stories of saintly intervention? That question inspired my book."

These miracles weren't preserved for the average person to read; they were never translated into Middle English or French. The oral tradition of circulation was what continued to be most influential and carried more propagandistic power among the pilgrims than anything written. But these miracle collections provide a rich look into the personal lives of pilgrims, how they lived and what they struggled with during that time.

By the early 13th century, the miracle recording had waned and the window that allowed this intimate glimpse into the lives of medieval pilgrims was closed. This was around the time that formalized canonization procedures began. In 1220, Becket was moved to a new shrine where he was surrounded by stained-glass miracle windows, depicting dozens the miracles he performed posthumously. It came at a time when the "enthusiasm for miracle collecting that had gripped English monks and canons since the late 11th century was evaporating," says Koopmans. But just because miracles ceased to be recorded, doesn't mean they didn't continue to happen.

Koopmans is already working on another book about the Becket miracle windows.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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91ŃÇÉ« film Professor Colleen Wagner’s current project, “Theatre of the Wounded”, places women at the centre of heroic myths, a space they have not traditionally occupied. Wagner's creative undertaking, which is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, seeks to give women and girls a new role and voice, something that no longer characterizes them as diminished or victimized.

Right: Colleen Wagner

Often typecast as temptresses, stoic wives or the spoils of war, women have been overshadowed in myths by the male protagonist. Wagner's project, which includes the writing of a play, the film documentation of the research process and the preservation of oral traditions, will be developed in post-genocide Rwanda and post-apartheid, AIDS-plagued South Africa.

Wagner says she is interested in “how trauma and atrocity impacts upon the ways that women in particular come to understand their affiliations and notions of community, responsibility and citizenship and how these might give shape to a new female-centred mythology.”

She considers post-genocide Rwanda a site where women’s roles are changing, since their traditional ones are no longer sustainable in the post-traumatic climate. Wagner says that Rwanda offers an ideal setting for an exploration into how these changes may inform a new female-centred mythology.

Her multi-faceted and collaborative project will bring together artists, women’s organizations, the local community and other professionals. During the first phase of the project, Wagner will travel to Rwanda and South Africa to lead workshops with women’s organizations, students, teachers and artists. With the help of a cinematographer, she will capture the process and make it available as a documentary. She will also be travelling to various memorial sites, prisons and throughout the countryside to record traditional oral myths. This essential component of her project, she says, will ensure that the oral stories and discussions can be made available as archival records that will be submitted to various libraries and universities in both Canada and South Africa. Following the completion of this research, Wagner will mount an initial sketch in Rwanda, Cape Town and Johannesburg of a play that will bring her research and oral traditions together.

The final play will be performed in Toronto, Rwanda, South Africa and as a 91ŃÇÉ« student theatre production. Though the play itself will be a fictional narrative, Wagner places great importance on the research potion of the project “in order to let the women’s voices speak to their particular environment…and give the play a base in reality.”

The stories portrayed in the play will rise out of the actual experiences of women who survived horrific political events, coped with troubled realities and went on to rebuild their lives and the lives of their families. For Wagner, “A new female-centred myth, is timely” in light of the ongoing bloody civil wars, genocides and rapes.

Wagner is a professional playwright, film script and short fiction writer. Her first stage play, Sand, was shortlisted for best international play at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England, in 1989. She won the 1996 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for her play The Monument, which was also nominated for a Dora Award. The Monument has been translated into French, German, Romanian and Mandarin, and has been produced across North America and in Australia, Europe and Beijing – the first commercial production of a Canadian play to be produced in China. In 2006, The Monument became the first production by a non-black writer to be presented by Toronto's Obsidian Theatre Company.

Wagner's other stage credits include Eclipsed and The Morning Bird, which premiered at the in Fredericton, NB in 2005. Her other current projects include a new play titled Home, a screenplay adaptation of The Monument, and the story-editing of a documentary film, Hallowed be thy Name.

Submitted to YFile by Vivian-Sofia Mora, a fourth-year visual arts student in 91ŃÇÉ«'s Faculty of Fine Arts.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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