hagiography

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἅγιος (hágios, “holy”) + -γραφία (-graphía, “writing”).

noun

1. (uncountable) The study of saints and the documentation of their lives.
   The second half of the eleventh century saw a notable surge of interest in hagiography throughout England, which meant that many of the Anglo-Saxon saints of earlier eras were furnished, often for the first time, with a Latin Vita. 2004, Rosalind C. Love, Goscelin of Saint-Bertin: The Hagiography of the Female Saints of Ely
   Jacques LeGoff remarks, 'Hagiography tells us much about the mental infrastructure [of the middle ages]: the interpenetration between the tangible world and the supernatural world, the common nature of the corporeal and psychic, are the conditions which make miracles and related phenomena possible. 2005, Thomas Head, Hagiography and the Cult of Saints: The Diocese of Orléans, 800-1200
   Charters, wills, and monastic rules offer evidence for this transformation, but it is hagiography and its double-scoped discourse that illuminates it best, and we will start with a vita that pursued the question of peroperty and prestige more comprehensively than the rest, the Vita Sadalbergae. 2014, Jamie Kreiner, The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom, page 189
2. (countable) A biography of a saint.
3. (countable, by extension) A biography which expresses reverence and respect for its subject.
   Churchill revisionism, of course, is almost as much of a cottage industry as Churchill hagiography. 2021-10-26, Peter Baker, “The Case Against Winston Churchill”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
4. (derogatory) A biography which is uncritically supportive of its subject, often including embellishments or propaganda.