Nobility, Community and Physical Impairment in Later Medieval Canonization Processes *

In later medieval society, a person’s social status had great importance in how his or her corporality, concerning appearance and physical capacities, was viewed. ¹ The poor and peasants were more easily associated with the body as well as bodily ailments ² while the elite were associated with the soul. In gendered religious discourse, this pertains especially to men, for the discussions concerning women’s bodies mostly concentrated on the domestic realm and sexuality. However, elite women were also occasionally associated with the more spiritual and intellectual aspects of these realms. ³