ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a comparative study of hagiographic devotion in the lordships of three Military Orders inspired by the Cistercian model in late Medieval times: Avis and Christ in Portugal and Calatrava in Castile. The archival sources used to collect data were the visitorial records, written testimonies produced by the officers when visiting the military orders’ domains. The Military Orders’ devotion to women saints such as Mary Magdalen, Catherine of Alexandria and others represented virtues like the spirit of sacrifice and humility, which served to reinforce the vocation of the Military Orders to care for the poor and the sick. Churches were used not only as central points for organizing both religious services and events in the immediate vicinity but also as organizational centres for the order’s economic and administrative networks. Churches and the patron saints to which they were dedicated have been discussed in studies to date, but this work proposes to extend the findings.
