Drei Gaugöttinnen

This study traces the popular cults of three German female saints back to earlier regional goddess figures, arguing that localized veneration preserves pre-Christian Gau-deities. It maps the geographic limits of each cult, recounts legends and rituals, and reads folk memory as an informal archive of vanished cultic structures. The author examines how Roman and monastic Christianity transformed, militarized, or demonized formerly domestic and sacred female roles, and how hagiography reinterpreted native virtues into miracles and moral tests. Combining antiquarian observation, legend critique, and social-moral sketches, the book shows continuity and alteration in rural belief and the reconfiguration of female religious authority.