August 22

Today marks the feast day of a controversial saint, Guinefort, who was a dog. A medieval local custom arose of venerating a heroic dog who saved a baby from a venomous snake. Both Protestant and Catholic attempts to suppress the veneration of Saint Guinefort failed. 

Today also marks the beginning of the Haitian Revolution in 1791. It was the only successful slave rebellion in history that led to the founding of a sovereign nation, but the nation has never stopped being punished economically and politically by the United States, France, and other colonial powers for its success. 

Today is the birthday, in 1915, of David Dellinger, a lifelong peace activist and conscientious objector, who was one of the Chicago Seven. His tendency to talk back to the judge of the trial netted him 32 contempt of court charges, all but five of which were eventually overturned. His conscientious objector and protest activities resulted his spending about four years in federal prison.  

Today marks the death, in 2009, of Muriel Duckworth, Quaker peace activist and feminist of Canada. Her life spanned a little over a century, during which she was active in women’s rights, civil rights, and the anti-war movements. 

Today is the UN’s International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. 

Reflection:

David Dellinger wrote in his autobiography, From Yale to Jail: 

I find the story of Guinefort fascinating. There is some evidence that this may have been a pre-Christian rite that persisted after France’s Christianization, and Christians in the region were bothered by its pagan and superstitious influence. But I think part of the persistence of such rituals involving animals and forest or nature spirits is a problem with Christianity, not with the pagan practice.

Christian theology has historically been very anthropocentric, placing human beings on a hierarchy of being below angels, as Psalm 8 says, yet above the beasts. In contrast, Saint Francis described the siblinghood of all creatures, referring to animals and even heavenly bodies like the moon as “brother” and “sister.” Indigenous religions are full of animals as spirit-beings and sibling creatures who treat human beings as the younger member of the family. 

I believe “biophilia” is our built-in need to relate to the rest of creation as family, and I think Guinefort is a manifestation of that. Anyone who wants to claim that sainthood cannot belong to animals has missed the way these companions inspire our own loyalty and love. I think a theological corrective in this, the anthropocene extinction, is important for whatever version of Christianity will survive.

Regarding Haiti: It’s hard to know where to begin. There is, of course, the fact that our fascist president rode to power while disparaging Haitian immigrants. Books have been written about the colonial and imperial oppression of Haiti, and how the current crisis there has been manufactured over decades and centuries. It has always been in the interest of former colonial powers for Haiti to be a “failed state,” in spite of its history as the engine that powered the French Empire. I pray that both the United States and France will one day pay reparations to a stable Haitian government. 

Prayer: Creator God who gave us companionable siblings in other created beings, help us to honor and do justice to your image in creation—not just in human beings, but in the more-than-human world. Amen.