The miracle collection of Rocamadour is not a chronicle in disguise. It was written to conform to the requirements of a distinct literary genre, and the author realized the potential of his work within that context. This is important to stress because some examinations of the historiographical quality of miraculat and of hagiographical writings more generally, assess the material in terms of how closely it resembles a chronicle or similar form of narrative. Thus, for example, the Miracles of St Benedict from Fleury ‘pass’ this test because its authors are supposed to have been principally interested in recounting the history of their abbey and their times, and simply used incidents of the miraculous to fashion the framework that structured their work. But it is clearly a mistake to Judge a source type principally by comparison with a different genre. Such an approach can warp our understanding of what the author of a miracle collection was trying to accomplish; and it privileges the idea that somewhere ‘out there’ there is an objective reality, independent of the text, which can be rescued from the distortions and exaggerations of the literary medium in which it is imprisoned.

On the other hand, it is clear that the author of the Rocamadour miracles believed that he was engaging with what he would have understood to have been perfectly real events and processes that were rooted in an understanding of the workings of the world that he would have seen as beyond debate. To this extent, the question of whether the stories are fact or fiction is inappropriate. The many references in the collection to people and events that are independently attested, and the fact that most of the events described had taken place in the very recent past, point to an author who cast himself as an observer of the contemporary scene. He did so because his vision of the cult he celebrated – and this was no doubt a communal policy on the part of his institution – emphasized the variety of places in which people had heard of Rocamadour. In their efforts to fashion and propagate a cult with such a far-lung base of support, the monks needed to be particularly sensitive to broad currents and contemporary affairs.