> > >Today, 6 November, is the feast of ...
> > >* Christina of Stommeln, virgin (1312)
> > >- an extraordinary case: at 13 became a beguine at Cologne; had many
> > >visions (e.g. Satan, disguised as St Bartholomew, tried to get her to
> > >kill herself)
> >
> > Does anyone know of a tradition regarding demonic impersonation of St.
> > Bartholomew? Are there other examples of demonic pseudo-Bartholomews? Is
> > there some reason why Satan would specifically choose to impersonate this
> > particular saint?
> >
> > Joy A. Schroeder
> > University of Notre Dame
> >
>
> Bartholomew is obliquely associated with exorcism as soul-mate of St Guthlac of
> Crowland, who is assailed by devils until he sets about them with the aid of a
> scourge given him by Bartholomew. Remind me, please, colleagues: is Bartholomew
> scourged before he is flayed? (For this episode see the famous roundels from
> the Guthlac roll.)
>
> Portrayal of Bartholomew as exorcist (and exorcist's mentor) impels me to
> wonder whether it explains at least some English dedications of churches in his
> honour as resulting from an interest in Christian exorcism subsequent to the
> conversion of the English. Leading on from which, and completely off the wall,
> can someone with Old English tell me please whether there is any possibility of
> a real or inferred association between the OE word for 'trickster', 'deceiver',
> Paeca (ae dipthong), and the name of Guthlac's sister, Pega, herself a sainted
> hermit. Probably not, but it's worth checking out.
>
> Graham Jones
> Leicester
>
> This is lucky - I'm about to teach some 3rd years (coming Friday)
> about Guthlac. I'm not happy with the possibility of a Paeca-Pega
> connection because Pega in the story is clearly loyal and is about to
> protect her brother's memory. I suspect her name is a shortened form
> of a Mercian family name fitting into the Penda/Peada pattern.
> Guthlac's own father, a Mercian prince called Penwalh, has a Pen-
> element and the -walh element which also occurs in Merewalh, one
> of Penda's sons.
> Julia Barrow
>
And, of course, Guthlac's biographer attempts to pin a 'devilish' character on
the 'British' inhabitants of the Fens where he and sister have their hermitages.
[For list-members unfamiliar with early medieval insular onomastics, -walh is an
Old English suffix from the word denoting speakers of Romance and Latin
languages, and Pen- is argued to be a prefix deriving ultimately from a British
word meaning 'head' or 'top', hence perhaps 'chiefest'.] Perhaps this was
intended to emphasise Guthlac as an 'English' saint in contradistinction to some
British element in his ancestry.
To explain my (probably completely foolish) thought about Pega, I had wondered
about a possible inference of a punnish sort (brought about by the shortening
process which Julia explains). Guthlac sets up shop in the Fens as hermit and
exorcist under the guidance of his spiritual soul-mate and fellow demon-fighter
Bartholomew. Is it not likely that the exorcism will have been understood by
some at least of Guthlac's customers as achieved by means of magic? Pega too
relocates to a hermitage in the Fens. What is _her_ stock-in-trade? Does she too
practice thaumaturgy? For 'trickster', 'deceiver' could we read, perhaps, a
word-play allusion to 'shape-shifter' in some similar sense as in 'shaman'?
OK. Crazy notion. Not a hope of keeping this kite aloft. But the associations
of Bartholomew with devilish impersonation and exorcism which Joy has raised
with us does focus attention on what audiences understood was happening when
Christian holy persons practised the casting-out of 'evil spirits' in a
partially-Christianised society.
Graham
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