At 10:56 AM 6/3/97 +0100, Sarah Salih wrote:
> > Some more remarks on St Walstan of Bawburgh: he is the patron saint of
>> farm labourers and livestock, specialising in those who have lost their
>genitals ;
>>
>
Graham Jones replied with a question for list members generally:
>Who are the other Priapic saints? [Priapus as impotence-healer, I mean ;-) ]
Have you had any answers to this question, Graham? I'd be interested too.
The one instance I know about is Thomas Becket, who was credited with
several posthumous miracles that restored lost genitals [in human males, not
livestock]. This feat actually made it into the standard liturgical office
for his feastday, which includes the following responsory at Matins:
Novis fulget Thomas miraculis:
membris donat castratos masculis.
But evidently later scribes found it very hard to believe that a saint could
be associated with the restoration rather than the control of sexuality; in
a large fraction of the breviary manuscripts I've seen, the verb "donat" has
become "domat."
Sherry Reames
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