St. Guinefort the Dog
Born/Died: c. 13th century
Feast day: August 22
St. Guinefort the Dog is not a traditional saint. In fact, according to the Catholic Church, he isn’t really a saint at all.
According to a 13th-century legend in southern France, Guinefort was a 15 out of 10 certified good boy who belonged to a knight, who also had a son. One day the knight went away, leaving the child with the dog. Upon his return, he witnessed quite what seemed to be a terrible calamity: the cradle overturned and the child missing. Mistakenly believing that the dog had attacked his child, the knight killed Guinefort.
It turned out that actually a snake had attacked the child, and the dog had defended the him, saving his life. Understandably wracked with guilt, the knight buried the dog Guinefort in a well and set up a shrine. Over the years the shrine was venerated by villagers in times of need, particularly when their children were sick.
As the church emerged from the Protestant Reformation, the institution sought to suppress the devotion to Guinefort as heretical. Unsurprisingly, the attempt to suppress the devotion only shed more light on the story of Guinefort. Though his shrine was eventually destroyed, the story of St. Guinefort the Dog, who saved a child with little regard for himself, has sparked again the debate about the souls of our beloved animals, and whether or not they can join us in heaven.
