hagiographer
Holy life writer
A hagiographer writes accounts of saints' lives—the term comes from Greek words for "holy" and "writing." The original hagiographers were medieval chroniclers who documented miracles and martyrdoms.
Now the word usually appears critically, describing biographers who treat their subjects with uncritical reverence: The book reads less like history than hagiography, its author a devoted hagiographer.
Writer of historical accounts
- authorCreator of written works
- historianExpert on past events
- memoiristAuthor of personal recollections
- scribeManual document copier
writer · documentarian · researcher · recorder · narrator · portraitist · profiler · archivist
Official declaration of sainthood
- martyrdomSuffering for conviction
- beatificationDeclaring someone among blessed
- relicsPreserved items from antiquity
- miraclesSupernatural extraordinary events
veneration · sanctity · patron · intercession · vita · legendarium
Regarding as perfect
- glorificationElevating praise or worship
- whitewashingConcealing unpleasant facts
- adulationExtravagant, servile praise
- eulogizingPraising someone formally
panegyric · laudatory · flattery · fawning · embellishment · exaggeration · selective · partisan
Sincere religious devotion
- reverenceProfound admiring respect
- edificationMoral or intellectual improvement
- exemplarTypical perfect instance
- venerationProfound admiring respect
devotion · faithfulness · sanctified · blessed · holy · sacred · spiritual · inspirational
chronicler
Writer of historical accounts
- authorCreator of written works
- historianExpert on past events
- memoiristAuthor of personal recollections
scribe · writer · documentarian · researcher · recorder · narrator · portraitist · profiler · archivist · annalist
canonization
Official declaration of sainthood
- martyrdomSuffering for conviction
- beatificationDeclaring someone among blessed
- relicsPreserved items from antiquity
miracles · veneration · sanctity · patron · intercession · vita · legendarium
idealization
Regarding as perfect
- glorificationElevating praise or worship
- whitewashingConcealing unpleasant facts
- adulationExtravagant, servile praise
eulogizing · panegyric · laudatory · flattery · fawning · embellishment · exaggeration · selective · partisan · one-sided
piety
Sincere religious devotion
- reverenceProfound admiring respect
- edificationMoral or intellectual improvement
- exemplarTypical perfect instance
veneration · devotion · faithfulness · sanctified · blessed · holy · sacred · spiritual · inspirational · prayerful
- church scholarstheologian, Church Father, Doctor of the Church, exegete, biblical scholar
- hagiographysaints' lives, vita, vitae, Bollandists, legendarium
- religious scholarstheologian, biblical scholar, Islamic scholar, exegete, liturgist
- writersauthor, novelist, writer, poet, journalist
- scholarsscholar, professors, professor, researcher, researchers
- Catholic rolesabbess, abbot, friar, monsignor, confessor
hagiographermuckraker
Journalist exposing corruption
demonizer · hatchet man · debunker · iconoclast · vilifier