medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Date: Friday, January 28, 2005, at 9:34 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (29. January) is the feast day of:
> Juniper (d. 1258) (Apparently not formally canonized, for which I for
> one am grateful) Juniper was an early Franciscan who assisted in the
> spread of the order. I found a story about him which I think is
> disgusting: J. was nursing a sick man who really craved a pig's foot.
> So J. cornered a pig in a nearby field, hacked off one of its feet,
> and cooked it up for the invalid. The irate pig-owner complained to
> J's superior. J. apologized so movingly that the farmer donated the
> rest of the pig. Blech.
Indeed. Perhaps we need a new category: saints (vel sim.) with a lot of
explaining to do.
Getting past my immediate revulsion, I started to think that in another
context much of this could be the opening of one of those outre'
narratives that the legal profession has traditionally used to make
legal principles memorable (or even for teaching persuasive argument --
think of some of the pseudo-Quintilianic declamations!). Not that
that's likely to be part of the background of this story. Does anyone
know what its original venue and likely audience were?
Best,
John Dillon
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