By analysing Jocelin's hagiographical works in the contexts in which they were written, this study has presented a more sympathetic appraisal of the author and his achievements than has previously been offered. Through an investigation into Jocelin's working methods and the treatment of his sources, the first part of this book showed how the author integrated and adapted this material into his texts. Jocelin structured his Vita Patricii largely according to the framework provided by an earlier account of the legend, to which he added narratives taken from other written and oral sources. The Vita Kentegerni was compiled in a similar fashion but this time the work was based on two main texts. The method used to create the Vita Helenae was slightly different. Apparently dissatisfied with the legend presented in an earlier version of the vita, Jocelin based different episodes of his work upon different sources, choosing those accounts that provided the most detailed record of events. Jocelin then harmonized these accounts with the narratives found in his other source material by inserting, where possible, the statements that were absent from his chosen base texts. The fourth of Jocelin's works presented other challenges. As both the first official hagiographical text to commemorate Waltheof and a work that documented the life and afterlife of a near contemporary, the contents of the Vita Waldevi were drawn largely from oral traditions at Melrose Abbey.

The second part of the study explored how Jocelin's texts were tailored to reflect the interests of his patrons. By synthesizing the different traditions concerning Patrick's death, Jocelin was able to set out the full case for Down's possession of the saint's body and provide the evidence to support or preempt the inventio of 1185. The Vita Patricii also acted in the interests of Jocelin's second ecclesiastical patron, the archbishop of Armagh, by including narratives that undermined Dublin's potential claims for primacy in the Irish church. The Vita Kentegerni communicated similar religio-political anxieties. The text includes a strong discourse of independence that supported the see of Glasgow's claims to be a special daughter of Rome. It was a discourse firmly rooted in the contemporary needs of the diocese and drew on the significant – and clearly recognized – parallels provided by the Constitutum Constantini and the growing cult of Thomas Becket. The Vita Waldevi too responded to the needs of the community behind the cult.