In one of our getaways through the Auvergne region and to be more exact, in the town of Blesle(1)we come across a fascinating scene capital that, despite being so significant for the place where it is located, has hardly been written, as far as we know, practically nothing about it.
The elements that make up the meticulous scene aroused a persistent interest in us: a ram attacked by a wolf remains held by its horns by a character in country clothes who, genuflecting, supports a baton stick on his shoulder. This fight for the sheep is presided over by Dextera Domini who emerges from the upper space and blesses the shepherd.
We insist that this scene is very significant for the place where it is located, since it would be the unprecedented and unique representation in a Romanesque capital of one of the most popularly known saints, who was widely worshiped throughout Europe over the centuries. XI-XII, and whose devotion spread rapidly, especially in rural hermitages.
We suspect that this is a root representation of the personification of Saint Blaise (San Blas), patron exhorted in these lands and in many others as an auxiliary saint and protector of cattle against the attacks of the wolf.
We know that in all the Latin towns the scourge of the herds is the wolf. At the same time, it is believed that wolves cut off the voice of the one who looks at them so that they cannot call and ask for help because it is a common belief that, when they see the wolf, their hair stands on end and the tongue becomes blocked, preventing the articulation of any word. When someone babbles, it is common to joke about whether they have seen the wolf, that is, if a wolf has carried your voice. San Blas, which etymologically means “lame and stuttering”, is the advocate of hoarseness and neck pain in general.
The shepherds of the French slope of the Pyrenees worshiped an image of Sant Blai de Prades who, in the past, had carried a shepherd’s staff or crutch instead of a staff. The old furriers and tanners venerated San Blas as an extension of his protection over the herds. (2)
It must be said of San Blas that, despite being so revered, there are no reliable documentary testimonies, only legends and traditions. He is therefore a historically uncertain character. The legend, as usual, abounds in various particulars and presents us with the old bishop living as a hermit, inside a cave and surrounded by wild beasts that visit him and bring him food. In the end, some hunters discover the saint and take him tied up like a criminal to the city jail. Despite all his prodigies, the saint was brought to trial and not wanting to deny Christ, he was sentenced to martyrdom: first they tortured him with the typical iron hooks or, according to others, combs for carding wool, to later cut off his head with a sword.
In the transit between prison and martyrdom, the two miracles that have mainly shaped his iconography are narrated: the healing of a choking child on a thorn and that of forcing a wolf to vomit the pig it had swallowed, which it returned alive and unharmed. to its old owner. While the saint was in jail awaiting execution, the old woman went to see him and gave him two fine wax candles to dispel the darkness in her cell.
That is why his iconographic attributes are usually two crossed candles or the wool combs, instruments of his martyrdom. Sometimes he appears in a cave with a bunch of wild beasts and other times, leading a tamed wolf on a leash.
But why do we think that this is the representation of Saint Blaise and not that of another possible saint with the same aptitude for wolves?
San Antón, for example, could be a good candidate for that representation, not surprisingly, one of his prayers reads like this: “Antonio, Antonio, Antonio! three things are commanded: that the lost be found, that the wolf be driven away, and the dead, resurrected” (3)
Another good candidate would be San Norberto, who according to his legend made a wolf take care of the flock of sheep after having forced him to release one that he had in his jaws. (4)
Or Saint Francis, who transforms the bloodthirsty wolf that had terrified the people of Gubbio into the peaceful “brother wolf” who accompanies him on his pilgrimages. (5)
And let us not forget Saint Froilán, whose donkey was devoured by the wolf and who, just by looking at him, the saint managed to tame him and turn him into his faithful companion, to the point that he would take his saddlebags (6)
Syncretisms apart and cKnowing how usual linguistic phenomena are in this art by which a morpheme assumes more than one value, our The option is to associate its name with the place where the capital is located: The Church of Saint Pierre de Blesle.
The name Blesle comes from a hypothetical Villa Blasilla, based on the Roman Gallic anthroponym Blasillus, derived from the name Blasius (7).
In Latin, Blaesus means “that stutters or stammers”, a difficulty of expression that, curiously, became the sign of communication with the gods, whose speech is difficult to translate into the language of men. Biblical Tradition maintains that Moses, considered a privileged interlocutor of God, stammered and stuttered: “Oh, Lord, I have never been a man easy to speak, neither before nor after you speak to your servant, because I am slow to speak and a stutterer of tongue” (Ex.4:10)
Thus, like an ancient sibyl who prophesied the oracle with hieroglyphic and intriguing words, Blas’ stuttering, stammering, is also indicative of his ability to communicate with divinity. Blas, therefore, is an oracle of God. On the other hand, the wolf, his adversary on the capital, which is clearly a psychopomp animal, that is, a conductor between this world and the other.
In medieval iconography and universal symbolism, “being swallowed by a wolf” is a clear reference to crossing the threshold into the afterlife, the descent into the other world. “Being devoured” is simply an image of the transit of death.
In the etymology of the place, one often finds the radical word “Blez” or “Bleiz” which in Breton means “wolf” and whose name is close to that of Blaise. (8)
We must add that one of the forms given to Zeus was the Lykaios, with the figure of a wolf, to whom human sacrifices were offered as an offering in the times when agricultural magic reigned, to put an end to droughts and natural plagues. (cf. Nilsson, Geschichte, 371s) (9)
The existence of a temple of Jupiter in Blesle is documented, on whose ruins the early Christians built the church of Saint-Pierre, one of the most beautiful and ancient monuments in Auvergne and, in whose surroundings, figurines of wolves have been excavated:
“Our ancestors, in Auvergne, worshiped Jupiter, the father of the gods, in the form of a wolf in the ancient “Blazilia”, Blesle, the neighboring religious city of Masiac. That is why the patron saint of Blesle in Auvergne It’s Saint Blaise.
Formerly and even recently, in the processions of this beautiful city, the statue of the saint was seen holding a tamed wolf on a leash. This was linked to the legend of the wolf, tamed by Saint Blaise, the Armenian bishop martyred in 816, as a symbol of Christianity defeating paganism.” (Histoire secrete de l’Auvergne) (10)
Thus, in the capital we see Blas, the new interlocutor of the Christian god, who fights against the old and pagan Blez for the salvation of the flock.
“For the appeasement that San Blas operated on wild animals, God wanted to show sinners the power of virtue, which orders even the indomitable nature of beasts.” (11)
Click the video to give shape and life to your images
health and romance