Odour of Sanctity

Revisiting historical events and using them as a starting point for an exploration of love and humanity, acclaimed young poet Amy Brown tells the astonishing stories of six candidates for sainthood in this new collection. From the lauded but enigmatic Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to Christina Rossetti, who posed as the Virgin Mary experiencing the annunciation for five days straight while her brother, Gabriel, painted; from Margery Kempe, who became the first English-speaker to officially record her memoirs, to Conrad Von Marburg, who smelled rose petals in 1231 as he knelt beside the body of Elizabeth of Hungary, whom he had beaten to death; and from a newborn baby who spoke almost uninterrupted for three days in 662, making divine demands and calling himself “Rumwold,” to Aurelius Augustine, who prayed for God to grant him “chastity and continence, but not yet,” The Odour of Sanctity explores the possibility of sainthood and salvation in a spellbinding epic poem for modern times.