ABSTRACT
“Behind the foundation of any ecclesiastical institution lay the support of a layman,” Joel Rosenthal wrote in his classic study of gift giving and the aristocracy. Members of the patron family might enter the monastery, thus strengthening the ties between the church and their family. A connection between the cult of Sainte Foy and noble families is first apparent in the region around Conques. The most long-lived Foy foundation in Normandy resulted from a quasi-resurrection miracle performed for Goteline, the wife of Roger de Tosny, the dominant lord of the region. The first church of Sainte Foy in Conches was probably attached to the Tosny chateau but also appears to have functioned as a parish church. The cult of Sainte Foy/Saint Faith came to England as a result of the Anglo-Norman hegemony in the late eleventh century, with Norman elites bringing not just their political and administrative apparatus across the Channel but also their saints.
