Difference between revisions of "Eustace"

Revision as of 01:44, 25 November 2013

This legendary 2nd-century Christian martyr's story is told in Chapter 14. Also known as Eustatius or Eustachio, he reportedly began as a Roman soldier named Placidus, who converted to Christianity after seeing a vision of Christ between the antlers of a stag. He was then tested by the loss of his family in a series of tragic misadventures (including losing his sons to a wolf and a lion while trying to cross a river), but they were restored to him and he achieved honor in the Roman army before being martyred for his faith. He is a patron saint of hunters*.

However, the entire story may be apocryphal, and Eustace is not recognized by the Anglican nor the Catholic Church. There are many unrelated saints of the same name: Eustace of Vilna, Eustathius Bishop of Antioch, Eustace of Luxeuil, etc.

The vision of the stag is commonly thought to be a borrowing from pre-Christian mythology. In Celtic myth, a white stag appears when the hero is called to a quest, or has entered a magical or forbidden realm. In the Welsh Mabinogion, the prince Pwyll accidentally trespasses on a hunt led by Arawn, lord of the underworld, who is hunting a white stag; Arawn's hunting hounds also pursue the souls of the damned.

Hungarian legend includes a mystical stag, son of a horned doe who carries the sun between her horns. In an origin myth of the Huns and Magyars, the Legend of the Hind, a king goes on a hunt for this doe accompanied by his twin sons, who are separated from their father along the way.

* The stag-and-cross logo on Jägermeister liqueur (Jäger means hunter) is not actually a reference to Eustace, but to Saint Hubert, whose conversion story is identical and was probably borrowed from the earlier legend.

See also

Story from The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints (1275)

earliest known reference

Story from Sacred and Legendary Art, 1911

"there is nothing in this legendary romance to recommend it"

Legends of the Saints

essay on the gray area between hagiography and myth

St. Eustachius by Anselm Kiefer 

done in 1974, the same year Hoban encountered the painting in Canterbury DO

St. Eustace's Well

this is right next to How Fents