Hagiology

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The literature devoted to the lives and legends of holy people ; the scholarly study of saints and their biographies
2. Written accounts recounting the lives of sacred figures ; the academic discipline that examines those hagiographic records
3. Collected narratives about canonized holy persons ; the field of research concerned with interpreting the lives of saints

Etymology: Hagiology is a compound built from two Greek parts. The first, "hagio-", comes from Greek "hagios", meaning "holy" or "sacred," and the second, "-logy," comes from "logos," meaning "word," "discourse," or "study." Put together, the word names the study or literature of holy people, particularly the lives of the saints. The pattern is a familiar one in English. Many scholarly terms ending in "-logy" were assembled in the modern period from Greek roots to name fields of study, so "hagiology" follows the same method as "theology" or "biology." The combining form "hagio-" is the element doing the specialised work here, narrowing the broad idea of study down to sacred figures and their biographies.

Synonyms: hagiography