ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates some of the ways in which wounds, wounding and wound healing were experienced and understood within medieval society within science and religion, legislature and culture. Wounds were potent signifiers reaching across all aspects of life as it was experienced in Europe in the middle ages. Hannah Priest proposes that the emergence of the wounded hero, around which the romance culture of the twelfth century is built, can be traced in that century's changing Christological ideas which drove transformations in representations of Christ. One parallel between our own times and the middle ages is the frequent convergence of religion and military engagement. Both Catherine and Angela sought to follow and, to an extent, share Christ's suffering. A cohesive discourse around wounds, therefore, acknowledges the myriad ways in which they functioned in medieval society.
