St Eustace and the stag

(Common meadow saffron, Colchicum autumnale, is today’s plant, dedicated to this saint)

Hubert of Liège (feast day November 3), is a Christian saint who came upon a stag (sometimes described as a white stag) with a crucifix between its antlers. The stag threatened him with eternal damnation if he did not mend his ways, and so moved was Hubert by his experience, that he entered the monkhood, and eventually became Bishop of Liège, and the apostle of Ardennes and Brabant. Hubert is one of a number of Christian saints associated with deers and other horned animals, of whom we provide an overview in the Christian saints and the Horned God page in the Scriptorium.

St Eustace, who changed his name from Placidus after his conversion, is another saint who experienced conversion by seeing just the same unusual type of creature while hunting ...

Tagged: saint, folklore, christian, christianity, catholic, pagan, neopagan, horned+god