ABSTRACT
The traditional pathways to holiness more often involved good works rather than intense and often introspective pursuit of closeness to God. Again, it was only in the latter Middle Ages that religiosity and holiness were expressed to any significant degree in avenues other than good deeds of varying sorts, such as service to the poor, service to the church, and evidence of character traits of exemplary Christian virtues, such as humility and unmistakable goodness, that indicated one was touched by God. Yet it is the mystics and heroic ascetics who fascinate, who unsurprisingly rivet our attention to their very excesses that cause admiration in some, repulsion in others, and bewilderment in most modern persons who pause to take an interest in such oddities. These holy individuals were seen to exist at the interface of humanity and divinity in a literal sense that has little equivalence in recent times.
