St. Guinefort

 

Lately I have come across several articles about an obscure saint from the 12th century, St. Guinefort.  He was one of those unofficial saints who was not canonized, more a figure of  folklore than one who could be verified historically.  He was invoked as a patron for the protection of children. 

And oh by the way, he was a dog. From this article:  St. Guinefort, the Dog Venerated as a Saint | Mental Floss

"For hundreds of years, residents in the Dombes region of eastern France worshipped a saint who was said to help protect infants from illness and danger. They prayed to his name, and brought sick infants to his shrine for healing."

"According to a legend that originated some time before the 12th century, St. Guinefort was a greyhound owned by a wealthy knight. One day, the knight and his wife left their infant son for the day in the care of his nurse and their loyal dog. They returned to find a scene of carnage in the child’s nursery—the crib overturned, and blood spattered around the room. Guinefort had blood smeared all over his muzzle."

"The knight, believing that Guinefort had killed his son, struck the dog with his sword, killing him. Immediately afterward, he heard the cry of a baby and found his son, healthy and whole, underneath the overturned crib. (It's not clear where the nurse was during this time, but she evidently wasn't doing a very good job protecting the child.) Next to the baby was a snake that had been bitten to bloody pieces."

"The knight realized that he had killed the dog unjustly—Guinefort had in fact protected the baby. To make amends, he buried the dog in a well and planted a grove of trees around it as a memorial."

"As the story of the brave and loyal Guinefort spread, people began to visit the well and brought their sick children there for healing. There are reports of women leaving salt as an offering, or placing children in the grove with lit candles overnight in hopes they would be healed by morning."

"These local rituals had continued for about a hundred years when a friar named Stephen of Bourbon heard of the legend and the local custom [PDF]. He declared that the veneration of a dog was heathen—the people who were asking for intercession from the saint were really invoking demons, he said, and the women leaving their children at the shrine overnight were trying to commit infanticide. He had the dog’s body dug up and burned, and the trees cut down."

"But the cult of St. Guinefort lived on, and the locals continued to pray to him. A folklorist found that the well and grove still existed in the late 1870s, while a historian discovered evidence that people were still venerating the dog-saint after World War I. Reverberations of his legend—that of a dog-healer living in the forest—seem to have lasted as late as the 1960s."

I don't know why this story resonated with me, maybe because we had some greyhounds when I was a kid. Most notably a black one named Bingo.  ("There was a farmer had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o...."). He was friendly with Mom and us kids, but he was Dad's dog. He went everywhere with Dad. But after Bingo died, Dad never had another dog. He didn't figure another dog could live up to him.

Greyhounds are very gentle, peaceful dogs. One of my brothers had another one, named aptly named Tiger, for his brindle stripes. He was a kid who would wander about without telling anyone where he was going. But Tiger always went with him.

Some dogs are better than some people. I say that even though I am more of a cat person. It is kind of comforting to think of a dog saint who is a friend to children, and just sits quietly beside you if you are sad or worried.

Of course I an aware that this is all uncanonical!