Depicting the lives of the saints in an array of both factual and fictional stories, The Golden Legend was perhaps the most widely read book, after the Bible, during the late Middle Ages. Compiled around 1260 by Jacobus de Voragine, a scholarly friar, his purpose was to captivate and edify the faithful and preserve the vast store of information pertaining to legends and traditions of the church. Arranged according to the order of saints' feast days, these stories have been translated into English and combined into one volume for today's reader.
