ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the petitioning of the saints for miraculous aid. All petitions follow a basic structure in spite of how or where they were carried out. Firstly a person found out about a saint. They then approached that saint with a problem. Finally the saint miraculously intervened to help the supplicant. The saints helped with all manner of problems, and supplicants engaged their saints in a variety of different ways. This chapter explores this variety of behaviours and how they fit into this structure. It also reveals the central role played by miracles in the cult of the saints. These behaviours gave an individual agency over their own lives and a way to cope with the vicissitudes of life. Making miracles brought people to the saints and saw them widely celebrated and written about.
