medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The immediate source is the _Fioretti_ of St. Francis, attributed to
Brother Ugolino (actually in the book of the Life of Brother Juniper
which is almost always attached to the Little Flowers). An older
translation is available online at
http://www.ccel.org/u/ugolino/flowers/
I encourage anyone who hasn't yet to read the whole Life of Brother
Juniper (which is not too long at all). The pig's foot is just the
first story. I also like the episode of Juniper on the see-saw.
The newer Raphael Brown translation is fun and he has a good
introduction on the difficulties of dating and attribution. The book
is a great primary-source introduction to Franciscan spirituality for
anyone (including undergraduates). It's available for $9 at
amazon.com, which gives its reading level as ages 9-12.
As St. Francis himself said (IIRC), "Would that I had a whole forest of
such Junipers!"
--Jonathan
On 28 Jan 2005, at 11:48 PM, Marjorie Greene wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> Perhaps (overworked already) Phyllis could provide her source for the
> "pig's foot" story, uh, legend, uh, urban legend, uh, baloney...
> Whatever...
> I'll be out of town for a couple of weeks, escaping Mardi Gras, and
> will await any enlightenment upon my return to the peace of Lent.
> MG
>
>> From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 29. January
>> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 20:34:06 -0600
>>
>> 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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