![Chapelle-du-prigny-Pieds-St-Guenole](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Chapelle-du-prigny-Pieds-St-Guenole.jpg)
Phallic saints are representations of
saints or local
deities who are invoked for
fertility
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...
. The representations of the
phallus are benevolent symbols of prolificacy and reproductive fruitfulness, and objects of reverence and worship especially among barren women and young girls.
Description
Phallic saints are representations of actual
saints or local
deities who are invoked for
fertility
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...
. More than
vulgar representations of the
phallus, phallic saints are benevolent symbols of
prolificacy and reproductive fruitfulness, and objects of reverence and especial worship among barren women and young girls.
[The Minor Themes]
ourcivilisation.com
The phallic Deities of the Slavic godhood include Yarilo (Yarila, Western Slav. Yarovit, Gerovit, Serbian-Croatian Јarilo) - God awakening nature. His name comes from the root yar - "ardent, frantic, strong" and is associated with ideas about spring fertility. Wed: rus. ardent, spring, ukr. yarny "spring", yarny "spring, young, full of energy, passionate." The Slavic verb yariti has the meaning "to have sexual intercourse." One of the hymns, written on behalf of Yaril himself, says: "I covered the plains with grass and trees with foliage. I bring crops to the fields and offspring to livestock".
Association
Many are legitimate saints who acquired their
priapic
In Greek mythology, Priapus (; grc, Πρίαπος, ) is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term ...
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
Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were r ...
at
Isernia
Isernia () or, in Pliny and later writers, ''Eserninus'', or in the Antonine Itinerary, ''Serni''. is a town and ''comune'' in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of province of Isernia.
Geography
Situated on a rocky crest ...
, near
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, on their feast day, those of the
penis
A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...
are the most common. Hamiliton's observations led
Richard Payne Knight
Richard Payne Knight (11 February 1751 – 23 April 1824) of Downton Castle in Herefordshire, and of 5 Soho Square,History of Parliament biography London, England, was a classical scholar, connoisseur, archaeologist and numismatist best ...
to write his ''Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus'', in which he reproduced examples of the
effigies
An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
.
List of phallic saints
* 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
Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were r ...
, twin physicians, one of whose cult-centers was
Isernia
Isernia () or, in Pliny and later writers, ''Eserninus'', or in the Antonine Itinerary, ''Serni''. is a town and ''comune'' in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of province of Isernia.
Geography
Situated on a rocky crest ...
, in Italy.
*
Saint Guignolé (Winwaloe), first
Abbot of Landévennec, who acquired his priapic status by confusion of his name with ''gignere'' (Fr. ''engendrer'', "to beget").
His shrine was not destroyed until 1793.
Worship of the Generative Powers: Priapus Worship
sacred-texts.com
* Saint Foutin, by assimilation of the name of Pothin (Pothinus), first bishop of Lyon
The Archdiocese of Lyon (Latin: ''Archidiœcesis Lugdunensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Lyon''), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The Archbishops o ...
, 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 Giles (Aegidius) at Cotentin
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...
.
* Saint Rene in Anjou Anjou may refer to:
Geography and titles France
* County of Anjou, a historical county in France and predecessor of the Duchy of Anjou
**Count of Anjou, title of nobility
*Duchy of Anjou, a historical duchy and later a province of France
**Duk ...
(by confusion with ''reins'', "kidney
The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...
s" - once believed to be the seat of sexual power).
See also
* Christianity and sexuality
* St. Priapus Church
* Folk saint
Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints, but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the ''populus'', they are also called popular saints. Like o ...
* Military saint
The Military Saints, Warrior Saints and Soldier Saints are patron saints, martyrs and other saints associated with the military. They were originally composed of the Early Christians who were soldiers in the Roman army during the persecution of ...
* Secular saint
The term secular saint, which has no strict definition, generally refers to someone venerated and respected for contributions to a noble cause, but not recognized as a canonical saint by a religion. The ranks of secular saints, like those of religi ...
References
{{Reflist
Folk saints
Fertility gods
Love and lust gods
Phallic symbols
Sexuality in Catholicism
Types of saints