PicoBlog

Saint Guinefort - by Sarah O'Connor

I could think of no saint more appropriate for the first post on Surprising Saints then the one and only Saint Guinefort (Geen, as in green, four), who was in fact a dog.

Yes, a dog. A greyhound to be exact!

I first learned about Saint Guinefort from artist Jessica Roux’s Woodland Wardens oracle deck in which the twenty-third card, which signifies loyalty, shows a hound dog and a pear. In her description of the card, Roux tells the story of Saint Guinefort, and I was stunned to be hearing about a dog saint for the first time. Stunned, but I also couldn’t stop laughing. I mean, it’s a dog saint! I then started thinking of an alternate universe in which I had chosen Saint Guinefort as my Saint’s name instead of St. Joan of Arc (not that I actually regret choosing her, you’re the real MVP Joan!).

Not that the church would ever let any young confirmandi choose Guinefort as their saint’s name. Let’s look into why that is.

The story goes that in the 12th or 13th century, near Lyon in France, a knight or nobleman left his home one day and trusted his dog, Guinefort, to watch his infant son. When he returned home he discovered the baby missing, his cradle upturned, and Guinefort’s mouth covered in blood. The knight/nobleman assumed the dog had killed his son and in a fit of rage killed Guinefort with his sword. When he returned to his home after killing the dog, the knight/nobleman found the baby safely alive under the crib and a dead snake mauled with dog bites. It soon became clear the Guinefort had protected the baby from the venomous viper, putting himself at risk. Guilty, the nobleman/knight buried Guinefort with a marker of stones and planted trees around the dog’s grave to honour him. There were then rumours that God avenged Guienefort’s death by destroying the nobleman/knight’s home (The Greyhound Saint).

The story of Guinefort spread and locals sainted the dog without the Vatican’s permission, as it was easier in those days to saint someone. According to The Greyhound Saint, “The Holy See was not designated as the sole authority over both beatification and canonization until the 17th century” (The Greyhound Saint).

Stephen de Bourbon, one of the first Inquisitors, was passing through the area and wanted to know more about who Saint Guinefort was. When Stephen de Bourbon made inquiries, he learned that not only was Guinefort a dog and that people prayed to him, but that many mothers would perform a changeling ritual with their infants to Saint Guinefort at his shrine and nearby forest:

“When they arrived, they would make offerings of salt and other things; they would hang their babies' swaddling-clothes on the bushes roundabout: they would drive nails into the trees which had grown in this place; they would pass the naked babies between the trunks of two trees the mother, on one side, held the baby and threw it nine times to the old woman, who was on the other side. Invoking the demons, they called upon the fauns in the forest of Rimite to take the sick, feeble child which, they said, was theirs, and to return their child that the fauns had taken away, fat and well, safe and sound.

Having done this, the infanticidal mothers took their children and laid them naked at the foot of the tree on straw from the cradle; then, using the light they had brought with them, they lit two candies, each an inch long, one on each side of the child's head and fixed them in -the trunk above it. Then they withdrew until the candles had burnt out, so as not to see the child or hear him crying. Several people have told us that while the candies were burning like this they burnt and killed several babies. One woman also told me that she had just invoked the fauns and was withdrawing from the scene when she saw a wolf come out of the forest towards the baby. If maternal love had not made her feel pity and go back for him, the wolf, or as she put it, the devil in the shape of a wolf, would have devoured the baby.

When a mother returned to her child and found it still alive, she carried it out into the fast-flowing waters of a nearby river, called the Chalaronne [a tributary of the Sa6nel, and plunged it in nine times; if it came through without dying on the spot. or shortly afterwards, it had a very strong constitution,” (Stephen de Bourbon, De Supersticione: On St. Guinefort).

Stephen de Bourbon didn’t “discipline the locals for their heresy of venerating a dog as a saint, or punish the mothers for the changeling ritual” but did “ha[ve] the dog’s bones disinterred and destroyed, and the trees which served as St. Guinefort’s shrine burned down,” (The Greyhound Saint). He then banned anyone from praying to Saint Guinefort with a penalty of “the seizure and sale of one’s possessions for anyone caught violating the ban,” (The Greyhound Saint). Stephen de Bourbon left and then retold all of this in his written word De Supersticione, and the locals did stop the changeling ritual but instead began performing a “healing rite” where people “would knot tree branches in St. Guinefort's Wood to symbolically bind a child’s ailment, thus curing the illness” a practice that continued for many centuries afterward, including the last known visit to the site for aid in the 1940s (The Greyhound Saint).

The story and honouring of Saint Guinefort can best be understood as an example of Folk Catholicism, which can be defined as “any of various ethnic expressions of Catholicism as practiced in Catholic communities. Practices identified by outside observers as folk Catholicism vary from place to place and may sometimes contradict the official teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. In general, when aspects of folk religion intermingle with Catholic beliefs in an area, folk Catholicism will result,” (Folk Catholicism (slife.org)).

Since Saint Guinefort was only recognized as a saint by the people aware of the story, he is a folk saint and not recognized as a canonized saint by the Catholic Church. So sadly, you won’t be able to choose him as your Saint’s name, but his legacy lives on, ironically, in Stephen de Bourbon’s condemnation of him, as well as the long persistent loyalty of the locals who kept his memory alive.

So here’s to Saint Guinefort, the dog saint who saved a baby and won the hearts of locals nearby. From De Supersticione to an oracle deck, to blog posts and an Etsy shop, it’s clear there are many people who still want to keep this good boy’s memory alive and his loyalty known.

The Saint Guinefort website also includes a prayer to the beloved canine, and I can think of no better way to end this post then with it:

SAINT GUINEFORT PRAYER

“Saint Guinefort, O holy dog, slain by thy master’s hand.

A martyr made of this good boy, most brave in all the land.

You saved a babe from venom’s fate brought forth by viper’s bite.

Protect us please, like that small child, throughout the day and night.

We vow henceforth to do our best to never act in haste,

for as your master struck you down, God laid his home to waste.

But vengeance never rights a wrong, the past is carved in stone.

Yet dogs forgive their master’s faults, and faultless dogs atone.

May humans strive to have pure hearts so generous and true,

thus echoing God’s boundless love, exemplified by you.