ABSTRACT
Abbot Maiolus of Cluny was a tireless advocate of religious life in tenth-century Europe. Shortly after the abbot's death in 994, a monk of S. Maiolo di Pavia was the first to hail Maiolus as a saint by composing a vita to commemorate his holy life. After taking account of the abbot's activities in Italy and his involvement with the ottonian court, the chapter examines how the author of the earliest Life of Maiolus employed a typology of biblical cities to make the case that Pavia and its inhabitants enjoyed the special protection of the abbot of Cluny. In a period before the intervention of the papacy in the recognition of saints' cults, the composition of the earliest Life of Maiolus was enough to legitimize the claim of the Pavians. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the significance of the initiative for the rise of Cluniac abbatial hagiography in the eleventh century.
