"This is truly exciting new work. Karen Winstead's book is the first discussion of virgin martyr legends that offers a broad survey of extant English texts from 1200 to 1400 A.D. Virgin Martyrs is clearly and logically organized, well-written, and it makes an original contribution to scholarship in persuasively historicizing virgin martyr legends." Kathleen Ashley, University of Southern MaineStories of the torture and execution of beautiful Christian women first appeared in late antiquity and proliferated during the early Middle Ages. A thousand years later, virgin martyrs were still the...