Leonie Bramwell

Research Topic

Lay religious cultures in the legend of St Julien, 1220-1450

Supervisor: Hannah Skoda

My current research, titled ‘Lay religious cultures in the legend of St Julien, 1220-1450’, is a microhistory in the field of medieval hagiography. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in collaboration with the Clarendon Fund.

The legend of St Julien the Hospitaller troubles much of what we know about saints in this period: both through the figure of the eponymous saint and through the perplexing role played by his wife, Clarisse, within the legend’s narratives. Through my research I hope to make use of this ‘trouble’: elucidating how the legend, when considered in its broader literary and religious context, demonstrates active lay negotiation of eremitic and monastic models of sanctity, as well as the reconciliation of potentially competing conceptual frameworks for morality and piety. I am particularly interested in connections between the legend and a confraternity of musicians, based in Paris, who took Julien as patron from at least 1321. I am also interested in developments in the religio-cultural significance of marriage and marital piety during this period, as well as how gender shaped religious and marital roles for laypeople – subjects on which the legend provides a wealth of detail.

Prior to beginning my DPhil, I received a BA (1:1) in History from the University of Cambridge and an MSt (Distinction) in Medieval History from the University of Oxford.

Activities

In March 2024 I delivered the paper ‘The great good in her’: the Lady as Saint’s-Wife in a Thirteenth-Century Life of Saint Julien at the International Courtly Literature Society’s ‘Courtly Literature: The Next Generation’ conference in New York.

I also recently co-instituted and co-organised the new History of Gender Seminar at Oxford, bringing together researchers and students interested in gender across a range of regions, periods, and disciplines. The seminar will run both in-person and online again from HT2025.

From MT2024 I will also be the recipient of the Graduate Development Scholarship for History at St Anne’s College.   

Awards and Scholarships

Graduate Development Scholarship (St Anne’s College), 2024-25

Clarendon Fund Scholarship, 2023-26

Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP Studentship, 2023-26

Oxford-Richards Graduate Scholarship (Wadham College), 2023-24

Clare College Honorary Scholarship, 2019-20

History Faculty Prize, University of Cambridge, 2018-19

Prust Prize for History, 2017-18