Buechner's Conscious Reinvention of Hagiography

Traditionally, writing about the lives of saints was something only done by Catholics. It is interesting, then, that Buechner, a Protestant, would write a book about a Medieval Catholic holy man like Godric. As the book progresses, it becomes clear that part of Buechner's purpose in writing "Godric" is to show a different, "new" kind of saint which other hagiographers, like Reginald, have failed to adequately capture. Of course, Buechner does not really think that he is creating a new kind of saint; Godric, after all, had been dead over eight centuries at the time of this book's publication.

The traditional saint is aetherial and intangible and, for that reason, inaccessible to the average Christian. Buechner's Godric, therefore, is in many ways an ordinary person. He is simple and even, at times, quite vulgar. He talks openly about the effects of the weather on...