St. Anthony's Blessing of Animals, St. Guinefort, St. Christopher, and Dog-Headed People, Yikes!

Hola darlings!

As I was updating myself on the news after a brief nap this early afternoon, I came across a short article at Yahoo News showing a slide show of photographs from the celebration of St. Anthony's Feast Day in Spain, who is the patron saint of animals.

The hand of Santiago Fulero, Major priest of the Saint Pablo church, blesses people with their pets outside of the church, during the feast of St. Anthony, Spain’s patron saint of animals, in Zaragoza, northern Spain, Wednesday, Jan.17, 2018. (Photo: Alvaro Barrientos/AP)

There is a tradition of blessing animals on this day in Spain and some rather bizarre rituals as well, such as riding horses through fire for the benefit of the smoke which is somehow thought to protect them then through the rest of the year. Perhaps a modified version of the "Aryan" horse-sacrifice ritual where the queen then had intercourse with the dead horse? 

Anyway, this led me to thinking about the dog-headed saint that I've written about before, but I couldn't remember his name.  So I did a quick Google search to refresh my memory and lo and behold, up pops a lot of information about an Orthodox icon, St. Christopher (dog headed human), St. Guinefort (a greyhound patron saint in France - brutally suppressed by the Fake Male God Enforcers during the Inquisition) and about a dog-headed RACE of people, I'm not kidding.  Now, honestly darlings, I don't recall at all reading about a dog-headed RACE of people before; I remember reading about the dog-headed saint and writing about him; and I may have read about a poor greyhound dog being made a saint in France but not writing about HIM (why would I not have done this, I'm asking myself???), so I guess last time I wrote about a dog-headed saint I didn't do very good research, or something, hmmm. 

But Holy Hathor, what a fascinating subject!  What is so bitterly ironic about this is that DOGS are the ancient companions of the Great Mother Goddess.  They were thought to be the harbingers and also cleaner-uppers (is that a word?) of Death and always accompanied the Great Mother Goddess during her walks across the Milky Way or the Primrose Path or Route 66, take your pick.  Modern thought also suggest that it may well have been women who domesticated the first wolves into the dogs we know and love so much today, in various places around the world, at various times, some as far back as 16,000 years ago somewhere in the vast plains of Mongolia, but also independently in the ancient Middle East.  I think it's still unclear; not sure I buy into the "happened in several places more or less at once (archaeologically speaking, that is) in several different areas around the world" hypothesis.  What we continue to push back in time is just how old evidence of the domestication of dogs is! 

I'm not going to go into a long, wordy and overblown exposition on these various dog people/dog saints themes - you can read easy :)  But if you want to do some reading on your own, here are some links for your perusal:

Cynocephali in the Ancient Christian Tradition, Scott Nevins, March 10, 2015, from Scott Nevins Memorial

St. Guinefort, Wikipedia entry.  The patriarchal storm god haters of the Great Mother Goddess are much in evidence in the account of the "killer mothers" of their babies. Note in the account that the dog was buried in a well and surrounded by trees to set up a shrine that people came to.  Now please - if this doesn't sound like a sacred Goddess grove complete with sacred spring and her faithful companion buried in her sacred space, what does?  Heeellllloooooooo....

I am intrigued by the reference in the account of passing a baby nine times through an opening between the trunks of two trees in the  "wood of Rimite" -- not sure if this means the woods (location, area?) were called "Rimite" or the particular spot where the babies were allegedly passed between two trees nine times was called "Rimite." I cannot help but wonder if there is some connection between this word (Rimite) and a name in a much earlier document from the second half of the 9th century CE, an Orthodox elder by the name of "Rimbert," as referenced in Scott Nevins' "Cynocephali in the Ancient Christian Tradition" (linked above). 

Could it be that Inquisitioners, who were Roman Catholic, had come across earlier references to Rimbert in either reading or hearing something about inquiries being made on "dog-headed" people many years prior?  Could "Rimite" have been conflated with "Rimbert" and then ridiculous stories made up about Satan seducing women (always women, NEVER men) into killing their own babies to fire up prejudice against uppity women?  I wouldn't put anything past those corrupted rotten dudes in the so-called "holy church" back then.  I should point out that the Inquisition first broke out in France in the 12th century CE in response to what was seen as encroachment on their territory (conveniently called "heresy") by Cathars (which preached equality of females, among other things anathema to the Men in Purple), Albigensians and Waldensians.  St. Guinefort is a localized French saint, never officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. 

Understanding the Dog Headed Icon of St. Christopher, July 8, 2013, Jonathan Pageau, Orthodox Arts Journal. 

There's tons of info out there, get reading!  The more you learn, the more you can fill in the blanks in HERstory yourself.