Saint Veneration in Twentieth Century Films - Term Paper Example

?Sorceress (1987) and The Holy Greyhound: Saint Veneration in Twentieth century films. Modern day cinema has shown increased affinity towards a plotline undermined by saint veneration. A movie such as Sorceress (1987) is an example that has drawn inspiration from the idea of saint veneration to make the script. The idea of portraying the reasons for which someone is venerated as a saint under the existing social surrounding is very intriguing. From a director’s point of view, the portrayal of the events that lead to such veneration and the psychology that follows is often the biggest challenge in making a movie revolving around saint veneration. Understanding the social framework of a bygone era and portraying it effectively to bring out the crude reasons for such social structure is important to ensure that the move can connect to its audience who are interested in seeing a cinematic portrayal of the lives of people in that era. The ‘Sorceress’ is a movie based on the book The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children since the Thirteenth Century that centers on the legend of the folktale of a dog named, Guinefort. The story says that somewhere near the city of Lyons, there was an estate in a village named Neuville owned by Lord of Villars. The lord of the castle lived with his wife and a baby along with Guinefort his trusted dog. One day the knight went on hunting and left Guinefort to the protection of the child. While everyone was away a serpent entered the house and moved towards striking the baby. The faithful dog seeing this chased the serpent and attacked it. Although the dog was also severely attacked by the huge serpent, it finally managed to kill the snake and threw it away from the baby’s cradle. The knight on returning saw the area in disarray due to the fight, the cradle on the floor and the dog’s mouth smeared with blood. Imagining the dog had made a meal of his child; the knight drew out his sword and killed the dog. The dog’s last yelp is seen to have stirred the child and it starts crying. The knight sees the child unhurt under the cradle and also sees the snake killed by Guinefort. The knight realizes what a big mistake he had made by killing the trusted dog that saved his child and is overcome with remorse. The knight along with his family then put the dog through a well. They plant a grove of trees over it and built a memorial in the name of Guinefort in its tribute. As the story of the dog started spreading the local people started paying homage to the brave dog and many miracles were reported to have occurred at the shrine. Guinefort started getting recognized throughout the region as the protector of infants and people started referring to him as Saint Guinefort. (Schmitt, 288) This was how the legend of Saint Guinefort was created. The story portrays two varying emotions of the knight, one when he feels rage thinking that the dog had eaten his baby and secondly, remorse, understanding that he had killed the creature that had protected his baby from harm in his absence. His remorse is shown to be so great that he never smiles again. The story also shows how the dog Guinefort went on to become Saint Guinefort through the psychology of the people. What started off as worshipping turned to blind faith and resulted in the birth of the legend of Saint Guinefort. People started engaging in activities that grew out of imagination that effectiveness that saw people doing unnatural and harmful things in the name of protecting their children. Later when a monk arrives in the village and is made aware of the legend of the saint, he is eager to find out more about him. To his surprise when he finds out that the saint is actually a dog, he gets infuriated and starts preaching against its veneration. He arranged for the dead dog to be unearthed, cut down and burnt the blessed wood accompanied by the other remnants of the dog. He even made sure to pass an edict barring anyone to go to that place or else they would be liable for prosecution and their belongings seized. This again reinstates the dictatorship the religion held over its people dictating what were right and what not. The movie ‘Sorceress’ is centered on showing the conflict between ancient customs and religious notions and dogma. It shows life in the 13th century in a village in France when a righteous monk sent out by the pope comes looking for heretics. Although he is faced with the indifference of the villagers and opposition from the local priest, he finds a suspicious target. A young woman lives outside the village in a forest and who performs ancient healing rituals. She is known to have cured people with herbs and folk remedies. The woman known as the vetula carried sick babies with their mother to the grave of Saint Guinefort and performed some healing rituals at times interrupted by a wolf and the babies were cured. This is also an extension of the legend of Saint Guinefort who was known to be the protector of children. The Dominican friar on behalf of the Church’s investigation as an outrage and mockery towards the Christian Institution of Sainthood shows people’s veneration of Saint Guinefort. He thus destroys the grave of the holy dog and also goes to the extent of cutting down the trees nearby that the town folk believe to be giving healing powers. This causes a rift between him and the other people of the village. Later he realizes the wrong doings of his action and starts regretting. To then come to a compromise with the villagers, the monk rebuilds a chapel on the site of the tree that people considered sacred and reinvents the legend of Saint Guinefort as a man saint who was accompanied by a canine. This film also depicts the growing radicalization of Christianity and how it often merged with the cultures that it encountered and in the process, both changing and being changed by each other. This has much more similarity to how religion merged in the lives of people in later years. Relevance of the actions of the knight in the book and the monk in the film can also be drawn as both were seen to have engaged in actions of rage and then realizing the wrongful nature of their actions made corrective measures to change that. In the story, the motives and intentions are shown to be very rigid. His views towards the veneration of a dog and the rituals being conducted in the name of protecting the babies were thought to be demonic and he destroys the shrine. The film depicts the cultures in a more subtle way, replacing the demonic rituals with treatment and although the monk at first considers it a mockery and destroys the shrine, later he realizes the mistake and rectifies it. This in ways reflects about the change in human perspectives to what exists and what may be done. This change in thoughts provides the way ahead for development of mankind by creating an urge within individuals to learn and adapt to surroundings. The movie shows about the great optimism of the human nature and the levels of progress that human beings could achieve if they were freed from the trapping of the various religious rituals and ceremonies. It also portrayed the understanding of missionaries that they more than just saving souls but they were needed to bring the light of culture to lands that were dark and primitive. This adaptation and co existence between religion and mankind let to a more mutually exclusive society that flourished through the presence of mind and God. There existed a demarcation between both and how such bridges were gaped is actually what these movies also try to represent through the changing attitude of individuals. A similar representation of the darkness of religious cultures was also portrayed in the film The trial of Joan of Arc (1962), where Joan is seen to be prosecuted with charges against religion although she had dedicated her life towards the freedom of her country. Daniel Hobbins’ work gives a deeper account of her life. Joan’s approach to gaining freedom was different and people thought she was defying God. They assumed that she could start a rebellion targeting the powers of the church and usurping the throne of France. Religious men considered her as a heretic and had planned on putting her behind bars. Her radical approach was seen as untoward for a girl or a woman and the church had fears that unless they could put a stop to it, the power of the church would be at al loss in controlling how people should lead their life and the decision on morality. There was always an aggressive attitude towards women from the church as an objective to uphold the masculine dominance of the society. The roles of men and women were defined as to what each was expected to do in the eyes of the God. The movies portray vividly the conflicts that existed between people lives and what they were expected to do. Joan was supposed to reveal “shocking and vile monstrosity” (Hobbins, 33). Religious men have used moral issues and the concept of demon for a long period of time to determine that way life should be lead. This had often resulted in lack of growth and development of society. People who defied the traditional ways and focused on science or medicine were considered evils to the society and were deemed heretics. However the formation of a cult happens only after considerable period of time when people realize what was right and what was wrong. The formation of the cult of dog in the movies is an excellent reference. The dog did not achieve any martyrdom status, as long it was alive. After its death, it was praised for its heroics. People worshipped the image of the dog for what it represented, protection. And that resulted in the formation of the cult of the dog. The relationship between cult of dog and the modern tradition can be seen in a lot of ways. Dogs are considered to be a man’s best friend. There can be iconic representations with Saint Christopher who got his name from carrying Jesus Christ across a river, as he is represented with a human body and a dog’s face. The modern day representations of saints are those who are pure, fearless and willing to sacrifice. Each of those attributes can be the factors causing the cult of the dog Guinefort. The dog’s portrayal of courage, faithfulness and loyalty was seen as a far better example that shown by the Inquisitor Steven of Bourbon who not only destroyed the bones and shrine of the holy dog but also punished all of its followers. However the portrayals of the saints of the medieval period are in quite contrast. They are supposed to be bound by religion and not humanity. They are more worried about existing customs and rituals that what is necessary and possible for humans to do. The divide of religion also got to various sphere within the society. The aristocrats were seen as morally secured as they were considered of fine breed. The peasants suffered from being discriminated and were subjected to untoward punishment from the churches on account of crimes. The French play Becket composed by Jean Anouilh in 1959 is based on the conflict between the church and the state reflected through the conflict between King Henry II of England and Thomas Becket (Anouilh, ix). This finally led to the murder of Becket (protector of the church’s principles and rights) by the king’s nobles and the punishment of King Henry II who declared Becket to be a saint while more than four monks whipped him. The movie Becket (1964) shows this scene but introduces some fictional plots to show the diplomacy of the church and the conflict between England and France. Conflicts between religious beliefs and the practice of man have been an old influence on the society. Worshipping of a saint is revealed in the film even under a harsh condition, especially led by blind faith. The twentieth century movies are a way of showing the middle ground between hysterical ranting and unnerving neutrality. Although the Catholic Church was up in arms against the practice of people worshipping and venerating a dog in what they termed sacrificing babies and throwing them down the well, the cult of Saint Guinefort continued for more than 700 years. It took a radical approach from men of religion and men of sense to realize the necessity and stop such malpractices. However the legend of the holy dog still continues to be religiously venerated. The people’s devotion to the legend of Saint Guinefort was much greater that fear of punishment during the Church’s Inquisition which lead them to keep worshipping and venerating the saint for nearly 700 years.   Bibliography Jean Anouilh, Becket trans. Lucienne Hill, Riverhead Trade, 1995 Schmidtt, Jean Claude. The Holy GreyHound, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Hobbins, Daniel. The Trial of Joan of Arc, Harvard University Press, 2005 Sorcerress, Suzanne Schiffman, Jack Hill (Dir.), Tcheky Karyo, Jean Carmet, Raoul Billerey, Catherine Frot, Christine Boisson (perf.), Bleu Production, 1987. Read More