From the Material to the Mystical

Herbal Treatments • Dietary Solutions
Alternative Medicines • Saintly Interventions • Fertility Rituals

Saintly Interventions

The patron saint of Britain and Portugal, who rose to prominence during the Crusades that took place between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.

In his myth, which was set in Libya, St. George found that the local people were obliged to sacrifice a virgin each day by feeding her to a dragon. To relieve them of this horrific burden he slew the dragon with his lance and rescued the maiden, who was chained to a rock. Less well known is St. George’s power to fertilize barren women. According to ancient authors, barren women who visited the saint’s shrines in northern Syria were magically impregnated by him.

St. Ildefonse

From Normandy, where sterile women rubbed their "abdomens" (probably a euphemism) against his statue in the hope of becoming fertile.

St. Arnaud

A phallic saint whose "veil" had to be lifted "to expose the symbol of fecundity."

St. Roch

The church in Champdemers (Deux-Sevres) had been consecrated to St. Pierre before the French Revolution, but his statue, having disappeared, was replaced by a statue of St. Roch. Pierre in French means stone and Roch(e) means rock. The Department of Deux-Sevres is situated in an area of menhir worship---that is, where these megaliths were, and perhaps still are, visited to promote fertility. This new statue, which had been commissioned by the parishioners, was termed indecent by a new parish priest who was appointed there in 1872. It seems that the saint was represented as lifting up his tunic, presumably to expose his genitals, but the objections of the curate seem to have been directed to the "lust" expressed in the eyes of the statue, so that he had a coat of wax spread over the eyes. His parishioners, however, objected to this so strongly that the curate had to have the wax removed "to keep the peace."

St. Foutin

Originating in France, the meaning of the name is derived from the French vernacular verb for coitus. Sterile women who wished to become pregnant would visit the statue of the saint who was provided with a large phallus, sometimes replaceable, from which they scraped bits of material that they mixed in water and drank. The material of the phallus was stone, wood or leather, depending on whether the statue itself was made of any of these materials, and depending on whether the phallus was replaceable or not.