Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Keywords: After-life, Devil, Hagiography, Iberian Peninsula, Marginalized.

In this article, we analyze two hagiographies written in the second half of the XIII century, known as Milagros de Nuestra Señora and Liber Mariae. Both were written in the kingdom of Castile, respectively, by Gonzalo de Berceo and Juan Gil de Zamora, clergy members with university education. However, the last was a Franciscan, who maintained relations with royalty, while the first was a priest with strong links with the monastic life. In their writings, the moral and didactical appeal directed to the Christians believers is also remarkable. Thus, through a comparative perspective and considering the historical context of the period, we will examine the representations of the marginalized present in the selected hagiographies, making some parallels between the place of the miracles, their social situation and their postmortem fate. For a better understanding of the question, we are also resorting to the associations that are made on the texts between the marginalized and the characters of the Virgin and the Devil, justly because they exemplify the models of inclusion or exclusion in these narratives.