In my previous post, I learned what I could from a Google search of “Genesius of Arles.”  My search quickly led me to online encyclopedia entries ultimately derived from the erudite inquiries of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century researchers.  We benefit enormously from the monumental labor of these earlier scholars. Fortunately, much of their work, previously available only in large research libraries, is now found online.

In this post, I am using the work of the Bollandists to access the earliest textual witnesses to the life, martyrdom, and cult of Saint Genesius.

The Bollandists:

The Bollandists were a society of Catholic (mostly Jesuit) historians, philologists, and archaeologists who set modern investigation into the lives and deeds of the saints on a scientific footing.

Between 1643-1925, the Bollandists produced a multi-volume compilation of investigations into the textual and archaeological evidence for saints listed in the Roman calendar, along with many obscure local and regional saints.  The modern Société de Bollandists maintains an English-language website with updates on the society’s membership and most recent publications and projects.  But the most significant Bollandist  research remains the work completed in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, particularly in the multi-volume Acta Sanctorum.

Acta Sanctorum

The Acta are a sixty-one volume encyclopedia of saints, organized around the liturgical calendar, with each saint listed according to his or her feast day (beginning with Jan. 1 in Volume 1, Tome 1).  The volumes of the Acta Sanctorum have been digitized and are fully searchable through a collection published by http://acta.chadwyck.co.uk/ (Unfortunately, Lee University does not presently maintain a subscription to this collection).

Digital facsimiles of twentieth-century reprints of the original folio volumes (1-61) are archived here (at Documenta Catholica Omnia via Google Books scans) and here (higher resolution, but less navigable scans, published by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF))

Searching Saint Genesius

In order to locate Saint Genesius in the Acta Sanctorum, I need to know his feast day.  The feast day (in this case August 25) is usually the date of the saint’s death, called the “dies natalis,” since it is also the date of the saint’s “birth” into heaven.  To locate Genesius in the .pdf scans of the Acta, maintained by Documenta Catholica Omnia, I click through the link then scroll down to the volumes for August.

The Acta for August include six tomes (or volumes), roughly 1 for every 5 days.  So I venture a guess: Genesius is likely in tome 5 (of 6).  After clicking on the link, I wait for the .pdf to load, then begin to scroll through the volume to search for my saint’s “dies natalis.”  The heading will appear as “die vigesima quinta Augusti,” “on the twenty-fifth day of August.”

I guess correctly.  The volume begins “die vigesima quinta Augusti” and proceeds alphabetically through the saints whose feasts are celebrated on the 25th.  After scrolling through a lengthy entry on Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and shorter entries on S. Geruntius, Bishop, and the Roman Martyrs Eusebius, Pontianus, Vincentius, and Peregrinus, I find that there are two Genesiuses who share a feast day.

The first is Genesius, Mime and Martyr (Genesius of Rome). My earlier research has prepared me for the possible confusion of Genesius of Arles with Genesius of Rome (a contemporary saint whose life and death seemed modeled on my Genesius). For now, I scroll through both the Vita and the Passio of Genesius of Rome.

Eventually, on p. 123, I locate S. Genasius, Notary and Martyr, that is, Genesius of Arles.

The Acta Sanctorum entry on Genesius runs for 13 pages (each page containing two columns of cramped script).  The majority of the entry consists of scholarly investigation into the identity of the saint and the question of his identification with the two other saints of the same name whose days are celebrated on August 25. A full assessment will require a slow and careful reading of the full entry. But an outline of the entry is as follows:

Outline of The Acta Sanctorum Entry on Genasius of Arles:

De S. Genesio Notario et M. [On St. Genesius Notary and Martyr]

Arelate in Gallia. [At Arles in Gaul]

Commentarius Praevius.  [Prefatory Commentary]

I. Distinctio huius Sancti ab aliis martyribus homonymis, antiquus ejusdem cultus apud Gallos et Hispanos ; qua occasione duo Genesi, qui perperam Martyrologio Hispanico inscripti sunt, obiter examinantur.  (pp.123-126)

[Distinguishing this saint from other martyrs of the same name ; the ancient worship (cult) of the same saint in Gaul and in Spain; at which time, the two Genesiuses, which are wrongly inscribed in Spanish Martyrology, are, along the way, examined.]

II. Indagatur, quis aut qualia fuerit sanctus Genesius, qui in Carthaginensi Hispaniae provincia apud PP. Minoritas Sciarenses hodie colitur.  (pp. 126-129)

[It is searched out who and what sort of person the St. Genesius was who is venerated today by a congregation [PP. Minoritas Sciarenses] in the province of Cartagena, Spain.

III. Sincera sancti Martyris Arelatensis Acta, dubius eorum scriptor, incertus martyrs annus et duplex Arelatensium traditio refutata.

[The genuine Acta of the martyrs of Arles, the dubious scribe of the same Acta, the uncertain year of the martyr’s death, and the double tradition of Arles refuted.]

IV. Diversa miracula patrocinio Sancti post martyrium ejus patrata, et ab auctoribus fide dignissimis conscripta.

[The diverse miracles attributed to the patronage of the saint after his martyrdom and faithfully written down by very trustworthy authors.]

ACTA [pp. 135-136]

[The Deeds of the Martyr]

auctore Paulino episcopo

[By the author Paul the Bishop]

Ex Actis Martyrum sinceris et selectis, qua Ruinartius anno 1689 Parisiis edidit, et qua cum alias Mss. contulimus, pag. 603 et sequentibus.

[From the genuine and selected deeds of the Martyrs, which Ruinart edited in Paris in 1689, and from with we have collated with other manuscripts, beginning at page 603 and following.]

“Proprium atque indigenam Arelatensis urbis . . .”

[I am include the first five words of the text that follows. In Latin this is called the “Incipit,” which means “Here begins.”  In the Middle Ages many texts circulated without titles and would have been known only by their incipits.]

Summary of the Editors’ Commentary

[NB: Without solid proficiency in Latin, it may prove too difficult to push any further into the details — in which case, an outline similar to the one above will suffice.]

A quick attempt to skim the contents of the editor’s introduction reveals the following:

• Medieval and early modern hagiographers have erroneously conflated Genesius, martyr of Arles, with Genesius of Rome, mime [the Bollandists maintain two separate traditions and accept the historicity of each].

• There are at least four additional homonymic Saints [besides Genesius of Rome] whose lives were commemorated in the middle ages.

They include:

1. “Genesius, martyred at the castle of Tigernense.”
2. “Genesius, the 25th bishop of Clermont”
3. Genesius Beorritanum, martyr [“who is unknown in various martyrologies”]
4. “Genesius, the monk, impiously killed by the Danes” [added by Saussay in his appendix to the Gallican Martyrology, [tome 2, p. 1223].

• Genesius is listed in the Martyrology of Jerome.  He is also found in three martyrologies of the ninth century: 1. the Martyrology of Ado of Vienne (d. 874);  Martyrology of Usuard (d. 877) and 3. the verse martyrology of Wandelbertus of Prüm (d. 850).

• He appears in the Mozarabic Liturgy with a hymn in commemoration of his office (the full text is printed in the Acta Santorum)

• He is also listed in a sixth century North African Martyrology (which preserves his liturgical commemoration at Carthage).

• The earliest Acta are attributed to Paulinus of Nola (whose authorship the Bollandists uphold).

• His deeds and posthumous miracles are partially described in the works of Hilary of Arles and Gregory of Tours and allusions to him are found in the verse of Prudentius, Venantius Fortunatus, and several other late antique and early medieval authors [ for full list, see pp. 124 E – 126 F]

• The entry concludes with the Acta, which the Bollandists maintain were written by Paulinus of Nola (they are edited from a 1689 edition by Thierry Ruinart). The Acta attributed to Paulinus are brief, running to little more than 4 columns. (In a subsequent post I will work to locate a complete English translation. In the meantime, I begin my own translation from the Latin.)

It will take some time to work through each of these leads individually.  For a thorough study of Genesius, I would want to locate modern critical editions for as many of the above references as possible.  In the meantime, I will consult the searchable website of the BHLms for a full list of extant hagiographical texts related to Genesius’s cult.

Next: Searching Genesius in the BHLms

“There is, in fact, between the two branches of the Rhone, a village next to Arles called Trinquetaille where there is a certain magnificent and very high marble column, erected upon the ground, to be sure behind his church. It is to this column, as it is told, that the perfidious populace tied the Blessed Genesius before beheading him.  Even today it appears reddish from his rosy blood.  No sooner had he been beheaded, than the saint himself, taking the head into his hands, cast it into the Rhone.  As to his body, it was carried by the river as far as the basilica of the Blessed Honoratus where it honorably rests.  The head, on the other hand, floating down the Rhone to the sea, lead by an angel, reached Cartagena, a Spanish city, where now it splendidly rests and performs many a miracle. His feast is celebrated on August 25.” [transl. William Melczer, The Pilgrim’s Guide (New York: Italica Press, 1993), 97].

I first met Genesius of Arles, a third-century martyr of the church, whose feast is August 25, while reading this account of his execution and translation in the Liber Sancti Jacobi. Book V of the Liber is a twelfth-century “Pilgrim’s Guide” to those walking the Camino de Santiago. The anonymous author of the text urges its readers to visit the Basilica where the relics of Genesius rest and to inspect the column against which he was beheaded.

When I assign this reading to students, they often puzzle over the miraculous translation of St. Genesius’s head from Arles, in southern France, to Cartegena, in modern Spain. Did the twelfth-century author of the Pilgrim’s Guide really think his reader so naive as to believe the martyr’s head had floated down the Rhone, into the Mediterranean, then west some 500 miles before it landed in southern Spain?  

In response, I dismiss such skepticism. I suggest to my students that this passage is not intended to be a scientific account of the saint’s posthumous translation. Maybe the author is just clarifying and organizing a tradition, combining competing cults of St. Genesius, using the improbable local tradition concerning the self translation of Genasius’s head? 

Still, beyond using Genesius to prompt discussion in a survey class,  I’ve never conducted a real investigation into the evidence surrounding his cult. Over the next several weeks, I will conduct preliminary research into the medieval traditions surrounding the life, death, and posthumous deeds of Genesius of Arles.  I am blogging my research, so that each step can be followed by students in an upper-level course entitled Saints and Saints’ Cults in the Middle Ages.  I especially welcome comments from students and also from academic researchers (who may point out paths not taken, resources overlooked, or errors of fact).

“Just Google it”

I begin with a simple Google search of “Genesius of Arles.”  The search generates an unhelpful 13200 results. The most useful  will come in the first two pages, which I paste below (scroll down for  commentary):

Search Results

1. Genesius of Arles – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Genesius of Arles(in French Saint Genès) was a notary martyred under Maximianus in 303 or 308. His Feast day is celebrated on August 25.

2. St. Genesius of Arles – Saints & Angels – Catholic Online

As a court notary in Arles, Gaul (France), Genesiusexcelled in the art of shorthand, transcribing courtroom speeches and testimony at a remarkable pace for the …

3. St. Genesius of Arles, Martyr – Bartleby.com

St. Genesius of Arles, Martyr. August 26. Butler, Rev. Alban. Volume VIII: August. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

4. Saint Genesius of Arles | CatholicSaints.Info

CatholicSaints.Info profile of Saint Genesius of Arles.

5. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Genesius – New Advent

Five people with this name including: Genesius of Rome; Genesius of Arles; Genesius, Bishop of Clermont; Genesius Count of Clermont; and Genesius of …

6. The Fraternity of St Genesius – Actor and Martyr

It has been suggested that he is a Roman version of St Genesius of Arles(Southern France), a notary who also died in the persecution of Diocletian. This St …

7. Genesius of Arles – Oxford Reference

For Genesius of ArlesAA.SS. Aug. V (1741), 119–36 with C.M.H., pp. 464–5 and H. Quentin, Les Martyrologes Historiques du moyen âge (1908), pp. 533–41 …

8. Genesius of Arles – oi

For Genesius of ArlesAA.SS. Aug. V (1741), 119–36 with C.M.H., pp. 464–5 and H. Quentin, Les Martyrologes Historiques du moyen âge (1908), pp. 533–41 …

9. Genesius van Arles

Aug 25, 2008 – Levensbeschrijving heilige Genesiusvan Arles, met legendes, verering en cultuur, patronaten en wijze van afbeelding.

10. St. Genesius by Julia Miller on Prezi

St. Genesius Julia Miller Who’s Who? St. Genesius of ArlesHis Story Later On About St. Genesius of ArlesMy Argument Similarities Differences Is St. Genesius …

11. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints – Google Books Result

GEMMA, see GALGANI, GEMMA. GENESIUS OF ARLES(Gennys of Arles) (d. c.303), martyr. This saint is mentioned in the Martyrology of Jerome, in the writings …

12. Glory of the Martyrs – Page 91 – Google Books Result

Avitus also distinguished this church with relics of St Genesius of Aries.80 67. … 81 Genesius of Arleswas thought to have been martyred during the third or early …

13. Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

Feast day: July 16. Genesius> See Anastasius (October 11). Genesius(d.c. 303) > Martyred catechumen who was a notary in the court at Arles, in Gaul (modern …

14. Behind the Name: Genesius of Arles

Genesius of Arles. Home » Namesakes · History. GIVEN NAME(S): Genesius. SURNAME(S): GENDER: Male. BIRTH DATE: ? DEATH DATE: 303. WIKIPEDIA: …

15. Genesius of Arles, Saint -approximately 303 [WorldCat …

Genesius of Arles, Saint -approximately 303. Overview … Most widely held works about Genesius. Acting is believing : a tragicomedy in three acts (c. 1607-1608) …

16. The Apostolic Fathers – Page 455 – Google Books Result

There were two martyrs of this name; (1) A notary of Arles who sulfered under … 4), who was fresh from the Ager Veranus, Genesius of Arlesis mentioned (ver.

17. Südfranzösische Lokalheilige zwischen Kirche, Dynastie und …

Jahrhundert 1.1.1. Das 5. Jahrhundert: das Arelater Jahrhundert der Heiligen 1.1.1.1. Der Hl. Genesius– Patron von ArlesDie römische Kolonie Arelate ist eine …

18. Martyred Genesius of Arles Suggested as Patron of the Craft.

The suggestion has been made to the stenographers of Spain who recently announced their desire for a patron saint, that they choose St. Genesius of Arles.

19. Saint Genesius of Arles (Saint Genès)… – Apostolic Vicariate …

Saint Genesius of Arles(Saint Genès) was a notary martyred under Maximianus in 303 or 308. His Feast day is celebrated on August 25. He is honoured as…

 The first two pages of my Google search results turn up 19 discrete entries (I have numbered them above, for quick reference).   My first task is to discriminate.  Below, I weigh the relative usefulness of the sources from least valuable to most valuable (in descending order). 

Popular Dictionaries and Martyrologies

I quickly examine Entries nos. 2, 4, 13, 14.  These are online calendars and dictionaries generated primarily for lay Catholic readers.  Each of these includes the same basic information: the Saint’s feast day (August 25); the year of his martyrdom under the emperor Maximian (303, 305, or 308); and at least two include a short narrative of his death.  From these sources I learn the basic narrative likely told the faithful on Genesius’s feast day or perhaps to tourists visiting one of the churches containing his relics. Most of these accounts contain at minimum the following details of the saint’s life and death:

• Genesius had been a soldier whose skill as a scribe earned him a position as notary for the Roman magistrate of Arles.
• he had become a catechumen in the church and was preparing for baptism.
• after have been summoned to transcribe an imperial edict promulgating the persecution of Christians, he recused himself and fled from town to town.
• eventually, he was apprehended and, while about to be executed, he requested baptism from the local bishop (who assured him that the blood of martyrdom would suffice as his baptism into the faith).
• soon thereafter, he was beheaded.

While these accounts familiarize me with the basic traditions concerning the saint’s martyrdom, the entries leave no references to either the medieval evidence for or modern scholarship on Saint Genesius. Therefore, I quickly focus my attention elsewhere.

Personal Sites and Confraternities

Next, I discard two additional sites, neither of which seems designed for serious researchers:

The first (entry no. 6) is a page hosted by a modern Confraternity of St. Genesius, an Irish Actor’s Guild, founded in 2007 and dedicated to the memory of Genesius of Rome (whose cult is likely based on Genesius of Arles). The fraternity’s homepage does not present itself as a resource for academic researchers.  So there is no need to treat it as such.

The second is a Prezi presentation, likely composed for a classroom assignment. It’s interesting work by a High School student or college undergraduate but not useful for the aspiring scholar.

Wikipedia, Catholic Encyclopedia, and Bartleby.com

The top entry (entry no. 1) is the Wikipedia page for Genesius of Arles. Many of us have heard the pedantic complaints of our teachers (and in my case colleagues) against Wikipedia.  But I generally equate this resource’s usefulness to the printed Encyclopedias (like Encyclopedia Britannica [1911]) consulted as a first pass by previous generations of researchers. An Encyclopedia is never meant to be definitive.  And I trust no Encyclopedia entry as infallibly accurate or current on its topic.  Yet, encyclopedias have always been a great first stop to get an overview and basic bibliography on a subject.  And Wikipedia is no different, particularly when it comes to research into the saints.

Many Wikipedia entries on the more obscure saints are derived from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-14), whose entries were summaries in English of researches by the Bollandists (whose Acta SanctorumI will describe in a subsequent post).  In this case, I quickly compare the Wikipedia entry (entry no. 1) to the Catholic Encyclopedia entry (entry no. 5) and to Bartleby.com. The Bartleby entry (no. 3) is derived from Butler’s Lives of Saints, the English language encyclopedia based on the Latin Acta Sanctorum. After comparing the three, I discover that they share a basic outline. However, the Wiki entry includes quotations from the earliest medieval “Life” of Genesius (which it translates from the Acta Sanctorum).  In this case, the Wikipedia entry is the most useful of the three, since it is longer, more thorough, and includes references to scholarship (dated scholarship, but useful nonetheless).

Oxford Dictionary of Saints

Both entries no. 7 and no. 8 are identical, online versions of “Farmer’s Lives of Saints,” published by Oxford University Press. Each entry gives a quick summary of the saint’s life with a bibliography of the principal scholarship into his cult.  The narrative confirms the reliability of the Wikipedia entry and provides the following bibliography:

“For Genesius of Arles AA.SS. Aug. V (1741), 119–36 with C.M.H., pp. 464–5 and H. Quentin, Les Martyrologes Historiques du moyen âge(1908), pp. 533–41; B.L.S., viii. 248;S. Cavallin, Saint Genès le Notaire (1945). For Genesius of Clermont AA.SS. Iun. I (1695), 322–4; B.L.S., vi. 29–30.”

After a bit of searching around online, I learn that the abbreviated entries can be expanded as follows:

• AA. SS. Aug. V (1741) = Acta Sanctorum, August (volume 9), tome V (1741), pp. 119-36.
• C.M.H. = Commentarius Perpetuus in Martyrologium Hieronymianum, edited by Delehaye and Quentin (and published in the Acta Sanctorum, November (volume 11), as tomes 5
• B.L.S, viii. 248 = Butler’s Lives of Saints, vol. viii, p. 248
• B.L.S., vi. 29-30 = Butler’s Lives of Saints, vol. vi. 29-30.

In a subsequent entry, I will discuss the Acta Sanctorumand Butler’s Lives of Saints.  Both are older but essential reference tools for scholarly research into the cult of saints.  The Martyrologes Historiques by Quentin is a modern scholarly commentary on the Martyrology of (ps) Jerome. The fact that the entry on Saint Genesius is 8 pages is very promising (I will need to order this source via Interlibrary loan [ILL], on which more in a later post).

The only scholarly source dedicated solely to Genesius is Cavallin, Saint Genès le Notaire (1945).  This suggests that the saint has not attracted a lot of scholarly commentary in the last 75 years.  I am beginning to think that research into his life and cult might present opportunities for genuine discovery.  But before I move on to consult the sources I’ve located in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, I have one final category of entry to consider.

Google Book Hits

Google Books has become an enormously convenient digital resource for rare and hard to find texts, particularly sources that are out of print or out of copyright.  Because Google automatically searches all “Google Books” scans for basic search queries, searches may quickly hit upon an important (and once hard to locate) print source, now downloadable in .pdf format.

In addition to a Google books scan of the Oxford Dictionary of Saints(no. 11), already described above, I land two additional hits:

The first is a passage in Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs, translated by Raymond Van Dam (University of Liverpool Press, 1988).  Gregory recounts traditions not mentioned in any of the dictionary entries consulted above, most importantly he describes posthumous miracles performed by the saint, including a story of a crowd rescued from drowning near the spot in the Rhone where Genesius had once fled from his persecutors [his initial escape from persecution was not mentioned in the “Pilgrim’s Guide,” nor was it mentioned in any of the encyclopedias that based their entries on the earliest written Vita (attributed to Paulinus of Nola).   Fortunately, although the Google Books entry is only a “partial preview” it includes a full preview of the passage related to Genesius.  Still, I would like to view the full text to examine the literary context surrounding this entry.  Thus, I will make a note to order Van Dam’s translation of the Gloriae via ILL (and will explain this process in a subsequent post).

What have I learned?

From my quick Google search, I’ve learned (at minimum) the following:

• that there is a strong liklihood that Saint Genesius was an actual historical person,  martyred under the Western emperor Maximian. (It cannot be taken for granted that all saints who appear in medieval legendary accounts were real persons, and so the fact of Genesius’s existence will mean the likelihood of substantial late antique evidence concerning the formation and development of his cult.)
• that standard, earlier narratives of Genesius’ life and martyrdom include that he was a catechumen in the church at Arles, engaged in service as an imperial notary, before he was imprisoned and executed in the period, c. 303-308.
• that Genesius of Arles is often confused with Genesius of Rome, whose cult may be entirely fictitious and likely originated from the introduction of Genesius of Arles to Rome sometime in the seventh century.

Finally, I have determined that none of the standard accounts, based on the earliest evidence for Genesius’s life and death, include mention of the miraculous translation the saint’s head, of which I first read in the twelfth-century Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago.   I will continue to search for the earliest documented account of this  miraculous translation.  In the meantime, I begin to wonder whether similar stories might circulate in the passionesof other martyrs. In a subsequent post, I will examine the possibility of folklorique or literary influences that might have shaped later medieval legends of this saint’s life and death.  But first, I must make the standard first stop in all serious hagiographic research: the entry on Genesius in the Acta Sanctorum.

Over the last thirty or so years, academic historians  have productively studied saints and their shrines within various contexts of local religious practice.   But this relatively recent academic interest is preceded by many centuries of careful scholarship by Catholic historians and philologists. We benefit enormously from the erudition of these earlier scholars. Even the undergraduate researcher can work with a much firmer sense for the extant medieval evidence when she knows how to access the work of earlier generations.  Fortunately, many tools previously available only in research libraries are now available online.

The Bollandists:

The Bollandists were a society of Catholic (mostly Jesuit) historians, philologists, and archaeologists who set modern investigation into the lives and deeds of the saints on a scientific footing.

Between 1643-1925, the Bollandists produced a multi-volume compilation of investigations into the textual and archaeological evidence for saints listed in the Roman calendar, along with many obscure local and regional saints.  The  modern Société de Bollandists maintains an English-language website with updates on the society’s membership and most recent publications and projects.  But the most significant Bollandist  research remains the work completed in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, particularly in the multi-volume Acta Sanctorum.

Acta Sanctorum

The Acta Sanctorum, “The Deeds of the Saints,”  remains one of the most productive starting points for modern hagiographical research.  The Acta are a sixty-one volume encyclopedia of saints, organized around the liturgical calendar, with each saint listed according to his or her feast day (beginning with Jan. 1 in Volume 1, Tome 1).  The volumes of Acta Sanctorum have been digitized and are fully searchable through a collection published by http://acta.chadwyck.co.uk/(Unfortunately, Lee University does not presently maintain a subscription to this collection).

Digital facsimiles of twentieth-century reprints of the original folio volumes (1-61) are archived here(at Documenta Catholica Omnia via Google Books scans) and here(higher resolution, but less navigable scans, published by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF)).

Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina Manuscripta (BHLms)

The Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina Manuscripta is a modern web-based research tool, maintained by the Société de Bollandists, and designed to update and complement research located in the early modern print editions of the Acta Sanctorum. The user of this site can use a simple search (using a Latin name) to access the complete list of all textual witnesses (at least those presently identified) to the life, deeds, posthumous miracles, and translations of a given saint.  Each text is identifiable by its BHL number, which becomes an easy way to distinguish in scholarly citations between similarly titled works on the same saint.  The site also permits “Search by Incipit” for unidentified texts. http://bhlms.fltr.ucl.ac.be/

Patrologia Latina and Patrologia Graeca

The Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina(abbreviated to Patrologia Latina[PL]) is a series of 212 volumes, published between 1848 and 1865, containing Latin texts related to the history, theology, liturgy, and law of the Latin Christian church, c. 200-1200.  Often published from earlier, seventeenth and eighteenth-century editions, the Patrologia Latina (along with its Greek companion series, the Patrologia Graeca) was the initiative of Jean Paul Migne, “God’s Plagiarist.”  For a number of the texts printed in these volumes, the PL remains the most easily accessible and most accurate Latin edition.

The volumes of the Patrologia Latina have been digitized and are fully searchable through a collection published by http://acta.chadwyck.co.uk/(Lee does not presently maintain a subscription).

Full .pdf scans of each volume are archived here (by volume number) and here (by “Rerum Conspectus Pro Tomis Ordinatus” (Organized by Contents of Each Volume) or “Rerum Conspectus Prof Auctoribus Ordinatus” (Organized alphabetically by Authors whose works are included).

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You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.