Dog Saint

You all know the story of the Faithful Hound. Dog is left to guard baby, father comes back, sees blood on the dogs mouth, assumes the worst, and shoots the dog. Baby cries out, father realizes his mistake, and finds a dead snake (or wolf) next to the baby's crib. In his grief, the father buries the dog and erects a memorial to him.

Somehow, this story came to be attached to a local saint associated with the healing of children, who thereby was transmogrified into a greyhound, St. Guinefort.

"This recently happened in the diocese of Lyons where, when I preached against the reading of oracles, and was hearing confession, numerous women confessed that they had taken their children to Saint Guinefort. As I thought that this was some holy person, I continued with my enquiry and finally learned that this was actually a greyhound, which had been killed in the following manner...[T]he peasants, hearing of the dog's conduct and of how it had been killed, although innocent, and for a deed for which it might have expected praise, visited the place, honoured the dog as a martyr, prayed to it when they were sick or in need of something..."

Eventually, a 13th century inquisitor learned of this tale, and promptly had the dog disinterred, and the memorial destroyed. Apparently, a dog cannot be an official saint, but it can be an official heretic. However, the cult of St. Guinefort survived, and people continued to visit the remains up until 1940.


It's ridiculous, the lengths people will go to sometimes. This is the end of today's random story.