The gate of the year

Overview of the locality known as the “Wood of Guignefort”, between Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne and Marlieux, Rhône-Alpes, France. This place is associated to a folk tradition which reminds of a cult bestowed by Middle Ages peasants to a dog, which had been buried here and was known as “Saint Guinefort” or “Guignefort”. A legend of the XIII century narrated that the dog, which had saved his master’s child from a serpent, had been afterwards killed by him, because he believed that the animal had assaulted the baby. The local population have transformed the animal’s burial into a place in which healing rituals were performed, particularly for children. The cult of Saint Guinefort, under the shape of a martyr and not of a dog, was diffused in many other regions and was frequently associated to healing rituals, focused on rural chapels built near springs or water courses (Schmitt 1979).

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bois_de_Saint-Guignefort_1.jpg]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Overview of the locality known as the “Wood of Guignefort”, between Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne and Marlieux, Rhône-Alpes, France. This place is associated to a folk tradition which reminds of a cult bestowed by Middle Ages peasants to a dog, which had been buried here and was known as “Saint Guinefort” or “Guignefort”. A legend of the XIII century narrated that the dog, which had saved his master’s child from a serpent, had been afterwards killed by him, because he believed that the animal had assaulted the baby. The local population have transformed the animal’s burial into a place in which healing rituals were performed, particularly for children. The cult of Saint Guinefort, under the shape of a martyr and not of a dog, was diffused in many other regions and was frequently associated to healing rituals, focused on rural chapels built near springs or water courses (Schmitt 1979). [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bois_de_Saint-Guignefort_1.jpg]