Mansfield Prize 2019 – Lisa Kaaren Bailey
The Mansfield Prize Committee is unanimous in awarding the Prize for the best article published in the Journal of Religious History 2019 to Lisa Kaaren Bailey, Associate Professor in History and in Classics and Ancient History, University of Auckland. ‘Handmaids of God: Images of Service in the Lives of Merovingian Female Saints’ September (Volume 43:3).
In her beautifully written article “Handmaids of God: Images of Service in the Lives of Merovingian Female Saints” Lisa Bailey has crafted a study of the lives of three early medieval saints that is a model of how close reading can illuminate issues of gender and socio-economic status. Her reading of these three texts is original and fine-grained, recognising how texts that are shaped by hagiographical formulae can be interpreted as both reinforcing and challenging existing traditions. The essay throws light on the dynamism of hagiographical writing, while also showing how assumptions about gender and social class can throw light on deeper issues in the late antique and early medieval world. It also provides a model of how religious history can be written for those working in any period.
Constant Mews, Chair, Mansfield Prize Committee.