If it's of interest, there is an interview I saw in some back issue of Road to Emmaus in which George Alexandrou asserts that there is some speculation that Christopher (which would have been a title because his actual name was something Greeks couldn't even hope to pronounce) was called "dog-faced" because he belonged to a tribal population from what is now Baluchistan that practiced intentional scarification (see especially pp. 21-5). This is a totally non-scholarly, but it could provide for some fun, speculative stuff.

- Kurt

On Sun, Aug 26, 2018 at 11:37 PM, Eleanor Flynn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
This is an aside to the Christopher narrative. I have just seen a rare image of Christopher with an ‘animal face’ in the Icon Museum in Korce, Albania. More horse than dog.

Regards

Eleanor Flynn

On 25 Aug 2018, at 12:32, Graham Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Dear Fellow List Members

I'm familiar with Christopher as the dog-headed Reprobus, so was intrigued to come across an assertion that in Gaelic his name was Conchenn, rendered literally as 'Dog-Head'. It was accompanied by reference to a passage in the Martyrology of Óengus in which Christopher's name is followed by the phrase i[d est] conchend, translated in the Whitley Stokes edition as 'i.e. a dog-head'.

So far, so good, but was the saint ever routinely called Conchenn in Gaelic in place of Christopher? I'm out of my comfort zone here, so would be glad of guidance.

Best wishes

Graham
*********************************************************
Dr Graham Jones
Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment
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