ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the act of thanksgiving that regularly came after a miracle. Whilst it was never required to give thanks to a saint after an intercession, thanksgiving was common, and it fits into the structure outlined in chapter three. A saint who was not properly thanked could reverse a miracle or stop interceding for future supplicants. Thanksgiving stood as a conclusion to the petitionary process, an act which showed that the preceding ordeal was over. These acts could be as simple as an individual cry of thanks, but if a miracle was picked up by the custodians of a shrine, thanksgiving could become prolonged and elaborate. Whatever a person did in thanks, a supplicant’s thanksgiving could never truly live up to the miraculous favour the saint had performed for them. As long as they made an effort, however, a supplicant could leave happy that they had been deemed worthy of intercession and that they had behaved graciously following their miracle.
