medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 13:08:07 -0700
Phyllis wrote:
>Today (16. October) is the feast day of:
>Gall (d. c. 645) ...
>became a hermit at the site where the great monastery of St. Gall was later
>founded. A very attractive legend tells that Gall saved the neighborhood
>from the ravages of a bear, making an agreement that the beast would be fed
>gingerbread daily (or maybe just bread in the original version) and would
>in return perform household chores like carrying wood.
>
There is a similar legend in the Life of the eponym of San Marino, St. Marinus the Dalmatian. But here's it's not so much an agreement as a punishment of labor service imposed upon the beast who had killed M.'s mule. Causing savage animals to become submissive is a topos in saint's lives. Is there a good discursive treatment of it?
St. Marinus and his bear were represented a few years ago on one of San Marino's postage stamps. See
http://www.aasfn.sm/previous97/ef3i.htm
(the bear -- yes, that's what the brown lump is supposed to be -- is in the stamp reproduced on the left).
Best,
John Dillon
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