A person who writes hagiographies or biographies of saints and holy people, often in an idealized or exaggerated way.
From Greek 'hagios' (holy) + 'graphist' (writer), combining the roots for 'one who writes about holy things.' The term emerged in English in the 1600s to describe medieval and religious scholars.
A hagiographist was basically the ancient world's version of a publicity agent—their job was to make sure everyone knew how amazing the saints were, facts be damned!
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