Hagiography and Episcopal Authority in Medieval Iceland

St Ambrose of Milan and the Militant Biskupa sögur

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In Hagiography and Episcopal Authority in Medieval Iceland, Davide Salmoiraghi studies how Saints’ sagas served to promote Gregorian ideals of ecclesiastical independence in the thirteenth-century Icelandic Church. Davide Salmoiraghi focuses on the Nordic reception of St Ambrose of Milan (374–397), the most renowned militant bishop in the battle between regnum and sacerdotium, showing how the Old Norse version of his hagiography (Ambrósíuss saga biskups) influenced the sagas of those bishops who fought to free the Icelandic Church from secular control.
Copyright Year:
2026
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978-90-04-76522-1
Publication:
30 Jul 2026
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ISBN:
978-90-04-75087-6
Publication:
20 Aug 2026
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Davide Salmoiraghi, Ph.D. (2024), University of Cambridge, is Academic Associate at Pembroke College (Cambridge). He has published several articles on Old Norse religious literature and history, as well as chivalric sagas, including a translation of Dámusta saga (Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2024).
The study is intended for scholars of Medieval Scandinavia, but also researchers in the fields of hagiography and ecclesiastica literature, as well as translation studies, in the European Middle Ages.
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
Abbreviations and Conventions

Introduction
 1 Saints’ Sagas
 2 Bishops’ Sagas
 3 Scope of the Research and Methodological Issues

1 St Ambrose of Milan in Medieval Iceland
 1 The Twelfth Century
 2 The Thirteenth Century
 3 The Fourteenth Century
 4 The Fifteenth Century
 5 The Sixteenth Century
 6 Preliminary Conclusions

2 Ambrósíuss saga biskups and the Church Militant
 1 The Structure and Contents of Ambrósíuss saga
 2 Literary Activity and the Staðamál
 3 Ambrósíuss saga and Episcopal Authority
 4 Conclusions

3 St Ambrose as Model for Bishops from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
 1 Introduction
 2 Writing and Re-writing St Ambrose from Late Antiquity to the Carolingian Era
 3 St Ambrose and Theodosius, the Investiture Controversy, and the Gregorian Reform
 4 St Ambrose in Medieval Scandinavia
 5 Preliminary Conclusions

4 Communio sanctorum and the Archbishopric of Niðaróss. Models of Legitimation in Þorláks sögur
 1 The Manuscript Tradition of Þorláks sögur
 2 Bishop Þorlákr and the Reform of the Church
 3 Hagiography and Þorláks sögur
 4 Preliminary Conclusions
 5 Re-constructing a Cult: the Presence of St Ambrose in Guðmundar sögur
 1 The Manuscript Tradition of Guðmundar sögur
 2 Bishop Guðmundr’s Devotion to St Ambrose of Milan
 3 St Ambrose and St Thomas Becket in Guðmundar sögur
 4 Arngrímr Brandsson’s Guðmundar saga
 5 Preliminary Conclusions
 6 Re-enacting Ambrose in Árna saga biskups
 1 Árna saga biskups
 2 Árna saga biskups and Its Hagiographic Sources
 3 Comparing Bishops: Similarities and Differences in the Episcopates of Ambrose and Árni
 4 The Influence of Ambrósíuss saga on the Composition of Árna saga
 5 Preliminary Conclusions

Conclusions
Appendix: the Saga of Bishop Ambrose
Bibliography
General Index
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