Engraving realized in 1481 by an unknown artist for illustrating a version of the Legenda Aurea (“Golden Legend”), a collection of hagiographic legends compiled by Jacobus de Varagine in the late XIII century, from The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 83.
The illustration refers to the legend attributed in the Middle Ages to Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople and one of the first Church Fathers. According to this tale, when the Saint was in hermitage, he met one day a young princess who was lost. Thinking of her as a demoniacal apparition, he tried to drive her away, but at last yielded to the girl’s requests and admitted her in his refuge. Notwithstanding his precautions, the two ended up in sexual intercourse. Overwhelmed by the feeling of guilt, the hermit threw the girl down a ravine, in the attempt to conceal his sin. Then, realizing the crime he had committed, he began to wander through the woods like a wild beast, walking on all fours and feeding on wild fruits and roots, to expiate his faults. After some years, however, the girl reappeared safe and sound, with in her arms the child born from their relationship, and the child himself uttered the forgiveness toward the future Saint. A thoroughly similar French legend is referred to Saint John Paulu (revealing in the name the term poilu, “hairy”) and reveals the association between the hermit and the Wild Man, or even the Bear-Man, like the protagonist of the legend of Valentine and Orson (Gaignebet-Lajoux 1985, p. 310-312).

[Image: http://library.artstor.org]