Saint Guinefort, a folk saint
Étienne de Bourbon *1180, 1261☨ was a Dominican preacher, inquisitor, and writer. He is the source of our earliest information, for he came to the area around Lyon to investigate. He was not pleased.
"...This recently happened in the diocese of Lyons where, when I preached against the
reading of oracles, and was hearing confession, numerous women confessed that they had
taken their children to Saint Guinefort. As I thought that this was some holy person, I
continued with my enquiry and finally learned that this was actually a greyhound, which
had been killed in the following manner.
In the diocese of Lyons, near the enclosed nuns' village called Neuville, on the estate
of the Lord of Villars, was a castle, the lord of which and his wife had a baby boy. One
day, when the lord and lady had gone out of the house, and the nurse had done likewise,
leaving the baby alone in the cradle, a huge serpent entered the house and approached the
baby's cradle. Seeing this, the greyhound, which had remained behind, chased the serpent
and, attacking it beneath the cradle, upset the cradle and bit the serpent all over, which
defended itself, biting the dog equally severely. Finally, the dog killed it and threw it
well away from the cradle. The cradle, the floor, the dog's mouth and head were all
drenched in the serpent's blood. Although badly hurt by the serpent, the dog remained on
guard beside the cradle. When the nurse came back and saw all this she thought that the
dog had devoured the child, and let out a scream of misery. Hearing it the child's mother
also ran up, looked, thought the same thing and screamed too. Likewise the knight, when he
arrived, thought the same thing and drew his sword and killed the dog. Then, when they
went closer to the baby they found it safe and sound, sleeping peacefully. Casting around
for some explanation, they discovered the serpent, tom to pieces by the dog's bites, and
now dead. Realising then the true facts of the matter, and deeply regretting having
unjustly killed so useful a dog they threw it into a well in front of the manor door,
threw a great pile of stones on top of it, and planted trees beside it, in memory of the
event Now, by divine will, the manor was destroyed and the estate reduced to a desert [wilderness],
was abandoned by its inhabitants. But the peasants, hearing of the dog's conduct and of
how it had been killed, although innocent, and for a deed for which it might have expected
praise, visited the place, honoured the dog as a martyr, prayed to it when they were sick
or in need of something..."
The official church suppressed the cult of Guinefort, but it was active locally around Lyon to the 1930s. He was a patron of babies, and his day was August 22nd. His iconography are the sword that killed him, the snake he killed, and the possessions of a baby. The aristocracy preferred white greyhounds, for they were easier to spot in the hunt, especially in the woods.
Now, folk saints are not officially canonised. Some folk saints have become canonised (Joan of Arc). Some folk saints do become venerables (Matt Talbot), blesseds, and eventually saints (Padre Pio). There are causes actively desired for Catherine of Aragon, Eva Duarte Peron, and Roberto Clemente, and others, including some who were never Catholic. Some are legends, and folk tales. Some are of syncretism with pagan sources (such as animism, and what some call 'voodoo' or witchery). Some are obvious fictions, and some are of evil people admired by devotees because of their success in criminality, cruelty, and crimes of great terror. Some will never be recognised, because they are obviously not holy.
The name Guinefort has also been applied to St. Roch's dog. Roch and his dog lived in the next century about Montpelier. The story of Prince Llewellyn of Wales and his hound Beth Gelert is placed about the same time or a little earlier than Guinefort's. That story was created centuries later. William Robert Spencer, a contemporary of Scott and Byron, wrote a poem about Beth Gelert. Some folklorists call this part of the faithful hound motif.
