You might well consider your dog a good boy or girl. But how good? Good enough, perhaps, to fetch a stick or discard a saliva-sodden chew toy. All very admirable. But is your dog truly good? Is it gallant, loyal, pious? Is it saintly? Is it… a saint?
Today, as the Reverend Richard Coles has pointed out, is St Guinefort’s Day. Guinefort was a 13th-century French greyhound whose tale was recorded by Stephen of Bourbon, a Dominican monk and inquisitor. Guinefort, Stephen tells us, belonged to a knight who lived with his wife in a castle near Lyon. When the couple went out for the day, they left Guinefort to guard their infant son. On their return, they found blood spattered around the floored cradle. There was blood on Guinefort’s muzzle, too. Thinking good Guinefort must have savaged the baby, the knight drew his sword and killed his faithful hound… only to find that the baby was unharmed and that the blood was a snake’s. The snake had made for the baby and Guinefort had leapt at it, knocking over the cradle but saving its resident.
