Religious DOGma: Legends and beliefs from around the world.

                                                  

 Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

St. Guinefort  

     I found this week's readings to be absolutely fascinating! The mixture of lore, religious beliefs, and psychological elements in this story leaves so much for us to think about. There's always another perspective to consider, another piece of the story to discover. These three articles, although very insightful, don't even begin to cover the truly interesting part of the story of St. Guinefort.

A quick review of the "legend":

    Basically, at some point an infant child of a noble (knight?) was attacked by a snake when all the adults were absent from the baby's location. The noble's dog defended the infant (who may or may not have been killed by the snake first) and fought viciously with the serpent. The dog killed the serpent and threw it in a way that made it not easily visible. The knight returned (along with his wife and the nursemaid, depending on the story) to see the scene (a dead child and bloody dog or a tipped over cradle and a gore-covered room and dog). In anger and fear for the child, the noble killed the dog. Only after the dog had passed away did the noble discover the dead serpent (and the peacefully-sleeping child if he wasn't killed in that version). Filled with guilt, the noble gave the dog a 'saintly' burial. Over time, people started to visit the grave site and pray to/preform rituals to get help from St. Guinefort for various reasons related to illness and death.

So what did the articles teach us about this story?

    Well, there's a lot to learn from these three different viewpoints. I certainly can't list everything, much less understand all that the authors are trying to say. But I do understand this: throughout history dogs have been seen as three type of things religiously. First, dogs can be seen and worshipped as "saints." This could mean as messengers of god, as companions to gods, or even as gods themselves. Second, dogs can be viewed as "devils." They either work for the devil, guide people towards the devil, or are the devil itself in disguise. Finally, dogs can be perceived as "nature". They're not necessarily good or bad, they simply exist and do what they're made for. 

    Of course, there are a million other viewpoints besides the three focused on in the articles. However, the only other ones I will mention are the more mild version from these extremes. Dogs may not be seen as "saints" but they are seen as companions, loyal friends, the wonderful and happy side of humanity, our hopes and dreams. They may not be "devils" but they can be threats, danger, wild, fear, death, graceful hunters, opponents. Dogs aren't always "nature" but they are neutral, natural, regular, understandable, expected, acceptance. These are less religious views of the three dog types, but they're still clear to see in various folktales and stories.

What else is there that's so interesting?

    There are a lot of points and ideas I'm overlooking. Honestly, there's simply too much to talk about at once. So I'm just focusing on the concepts that really interest me. Specifically, I want to discuss a little more about these dog stereotypes, the idea of dogma, and the combination or lack thereof of  cultural beliefs.

    I've already talked about dog stereotypes: the more religious beliefs of saint, devil, and nature as well as the more mild and non-religious version of the three types. Really, the last thing I wanted to mention with this is how these viewpoints could be influenced by time. When I say time, I mean the time the people and dogs were living in- the century, the location, the history. A Native American living in pre-colonized America would have a very different viewpoint than, say, Abraham Lincoln. Someone from Japan would view dogs differently than someone from Chile. And groups of people that have been working with dogs for generations will view them very differently than from someone who is the first one in their family to even meet a dog (not really feasible, but I'm using extremes here to emphasize my point). This story is mainly influenced by Medieval Christianity, but it's interesting to think about how the story evolved over time- between generations, cities, and experiences.

Dogma- a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.

    This idea of Dogma is something I wasn't even aware of before reading Dr. Rebecca Rist's article. But as soon as I read it, the pun was just too good to pass up (DOGma, haha). In all seriousness, though, a principle being "laid down" by an authoritative figure is a relatable idea. It's a bit difficult to think about, understandably many people don't like the idea that we hold something to be true simply because someone else says it is. However, that is essentially what religion is- following a set of beliefs set by some sort of accepted authority. 

    Even if you're not religious, this concept still holds true. Think back to when you were a child. Why is 4-2=2? Many people will likely respond along the lines of "because that's what my teacher taught me." Really, it's because you add the opposite of an integer to result in a combination of opposites as your answer. But many people don't always learn everything about a topic (addition and subtraction actually have a lot more to them then you'd think, teachers have to learn a lot about basic operations) so their go-to answer for explaining the reasoning behind these things is an authoritative figure.

    The reason why this is so interesting in relation to the story of St. Guinefort is that the story is influenced greatly by 'people' that have 'authority.' Stephen of Bourbon is one obvious example of authority. He was an influential member of the Christian church so people looked up to and followed him. However, there are other examples of these leading figures. One is the dog. Now, the dog is clearly dead and even if it was alive it couldn't communicate authoritative-level ideas to beings of another species. But the fact is that people believed in it and changed their viewpoints and actions according to its authority. The same could be said about the gravestone, the mothers participating in the cult as well as the old women, and even the elder trees used in the ritual. Simply put, people believed something held some form of authority and acted on the Dogma.

The last thing I want to talk about is cultural beliefs. Each and every culture has its own way of viewing the world and worshipping their own beliefs. In this story, you see a whole mixture of these beliefs. From Christian, to Celtic, to Tribal, to German. All these unique beliefs combined into one ritual. The original story itself also comes from many places all around the world. Each version is the same and yet different. The real confusing things is how the story and these rituals got around. 

    Traveling wasn't really easy or safe back then, really it wasn't even possible for many people. So why did this story pop up in so many different places? Translating stories is difficult, but did the gist of the story somehow survive the odd-ball techniques to pass it along? Or did a similar event happen often enough for word to spread? What about the rituals? Not every person is willing to share their sacred ways of worship. Some of these ways are even destroyed by other groups in an attempt to make their own beliefs the dominant one. So how did so many different types of worship combine into one ritual in an un-educated, small town? How did the different cultural beliefs about dogs affect all this?

    There's an interesting mixture of beliefs and cultures here. We're not exactly sure how the story of St. Guinefort came to be. But we can keep asking questions and exploring these concepts. And that's the true value of these articles. They are all different and they don't hold all the answers, but they sure do give you a lot to think about.