Phallic saint
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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“The worship of Priapus amongst the Romans was derived from the Egyptians, who, under the form of Apis, the Sacred Bull, adored the generative Power of Nature” [...] “the Phallus was the ancient emblem of creation, and representative of the gods Bacchus, Priapus, Hercules, Siva, Osiris, Baal and Asher, who were all Phallic deities."--introduction to the Priapeia translation by Leonard C. Smithers and Sir Richard Burton |
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Phallic saints were actual saints or local deities who were invoked for fertility. More than vulgar representations of the phallus, phallic saints were benevolent symbols of prolificacy and reproductive fruitfulness, and objects of reverence and especial worship among barren women and young girls. Many were legitimate saints who acquired their priapic attributes through the process of folk-etymology. Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) reported that, among the wax representations of body parts then presented as offerings to Cosmas and Damian at Isernia, near Naples, on their feast day, those of the penis were the most common.
Some examples include:
- Ters, or St. Ters, of Antwerp, whose cult was reported on by Johannes Goropius Becanus. He was also named Semini or God Jumenas.
- Saints Cosmas and Damian, twin physicians, one of whose cult-centers was Isernia, near Naples.
- Saint Guignolé (Winwaloe), first Abbot of Landévennec, who acquired his priapic status by confusion of his name with gignere (Fr. engendrer, "to beget").
- Saint Foutin, by assimilation of the name of Pothin (Pothinus), first bishop of Lyon, to the verb foutre (“to fuck”). People worshipped the phallus of St. Foutin by pouring wine on it.
- Saint Guerlichon (Greluchon) at Bourg-Dieu.
- Saint Gilles (Aegidius) at Cotentin.
- Saint Rene in Anjou (by confusion with reins, "kidneys" - once believed to be the seat of sexual power).
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