Saint Foutin, Saint Guénolé and Saint

Guérlichon the trinity of the phallic saints

After the Council of Nicaea in 325, Christianity invaded the

entire Roman Empire, putting down traditions and pagan
beliefs. Some pagan deities were transformed into a saint,
while others, often considered vulgar, too sexual, and were
simply erased. And yet, certain phallic deity have managed to
resist this round of decency instituted by the first Christian
empire, three saints throughout France have resisted and have
been transvestite in saint despite their libidinous nature. Its
three saints are often called "The Trinity of the Phallic Saints".

This trinity includes Saint Foutin, Saint Guénolé and Saint

Guérlichon.

SAINT FOUTIN
Saint Foutin is a saint representing the syncretism amalgam
between Priapus and Pothinus, it is a figure whose history is
uncertain that Irenaeus of Lyon would have canonized.

The similarity of the name of Pothinus (Saint Photin) and the

old French verb "Foutre" would have led to a linguistic
assimilation, often associating Saint Foutin and Saint Photin
by many matyrologist, because the name Foutin can as much
come from "Foutre", which meant "Fuck", but it may also
have been an intentionally modified version of the name of
Pothinus (Photin).

It is said that Saint Foutin had an influence on the

reestablishment of sterile women's fertility, vigor and virility
for impotent men. At Varailles, a town in Provence, in the
south-east of France, wax images of members of both sexes
were offered at Saint Foutin and suspended from the ceiling of
his chapel. This image was use for health women infertility
and men vigor.

Pierre de L'Estoile commented that, as the ceiling was

covered, when the wind blew them, it produced an effect that
greatly disturbed the devotions of the faithful.

In a church in Embrun, there was a large phallus, which would

be a relic of Saint Foutin.

The worshipers used to offer wine to this deity, as a libation

(the wine was poured over the head of the organ), a sacred
vessel underneath took the wine, which was then called the
sacred vinegar, and it was believed that it served as a remedy
in cases of infertility, helplessness, or lack of manhood.

Saint Foutin is celebrated in two regions:

- In Provence in the city of Varages (Var)

- In Normandy in the cities of Saint-Pierre-du-Vauvray and
Balleroy

Two large churches were associated with him:

- The church of Saint Eutrope in Orange (which was burned

by Protestants in 1562)
- The church of Embrun (Hautes-Alpes) who owned his relics

Les Confession Catholique du Sieur de Sancy (The Catholic

Confession of Sieur de Sancy), speaks of the Cult of Saint
Foutin and in the 24 Songs of the Bessin (1912) by Joseph
Mague.

La Saint Foutin (en Normand)

24 Chanson du Bessin (1912) par Joseph Mague (1875-
1940)
j'ons veu tout' les fèt' du poyis,
La Saint-Gorgon, la Saint-Supli
Saint-Norbert qu'on fête à Mondaye,
Saint-Gratien, Saint-Jean, Saint-Martin,
Et bi, y en a pièche à m'n idaye,
D'pus geatil' que la Saint-Foutin.

SAINT GUENOLE
Saint Guénolé is a legendary religious figure who lived
between the fifth and sixth century in Brittany and died around
532. He is said to have founded the abbey Landévennec.

In Breton, his name is spelled Gwennole or Gwenole.

In Latin, his name appears in the cartulary of Landévennec in

the form of Uuingualoeus and Guingualoeus.

From Guingualoeus derive the following names in French:

Guénolé, Grimolay, Guignolet, Guingalois, Guingaloué,
Guingalan, Guinglin, etc.

Saint Guénolé is also known in Latin texts under the name

Winwaloeus from which Winnoc or Walloy derive (in the
latter case in Montreuil in the Pas-de-Calais).

Saint Guénolé was sometimes mistaken with Saint Gwenael,

who was in fact his successor as abbot of Landévennec.
His hagiography comes from “La légende dorée de saint
Guénolé ou Vie brève” (the Golden Legend of Saint Guénolé
or Brief Life) written by the monk Clement in Landévennec
around the year 860.

His father, Saint Fragan, and his mother, Saint Gwenn, landed
in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, probably from Wales, to settle at
Ploufragan (Côtes-d'Armor). Guénolé is the third son of a
family whose other children are Clervie, Jacut and Guéthénoc.
He would have been born, either at Ploufragan or at Plouguin,
where the supposed place of his birth is still shown (a feudal
mound). As a child, he was entrusted, around 470, to St.
Budoc to be formed in the hermitage of it, located on the
island Lavret, in the archipelago of Bréhat.

Around 485, he manifests the desire to go to Ireland to

venerate the remains of Saint Patrick who has just died, the
Apostle appears to him in a dream to tell him that it is better to
stay in Armorica to found an abbey.

With eleven other disciples of Saint Budoc, he settled on

another island called Tibidy, which one tried to interpret as the
island of the house of prayers, at the Hospital-Camfrout, in the
river of Faou.

At the end of three years, in 490, Guénolé, new Moses,

miraculously opens a passage in the sea to go to found a new
abbey on the opposite bank of the estuary, in Landévennec. It
makes it the religious center of western Brittany; He died there
about 532. On the eve of his death he would have chosen his
successor, celebrated a mass and received absolution.
The abbey of Landévennec (monastery it builds) is still the
main place of worship of Saint Guénolé.

He is honored as patron in the parishes where were located

dependencies (often priory) of the abbey of Landévennec:
Concarneau, Île-de-Sein, Landrévarzec, Batz-sur-Mer,
Trévou-Tréguignec, Locunolé, Locquénolé, Saint -Guénolé (in
Penmarc'h), the last three names being present in many places
in Brittany.

Chapels are dedicated to Saint Guénolé in Plourac'h, Collorec

and Tonquédec. In Brest a chapel Saint-Guénolé remains in
the state of ruins on the banks of the Penfeld; it was the place
of a cult of fertility.

Saint Guénolé represented one of the famous phallic saints to

help women desperate by sterility, lived in the Middle Ages
and even after, as a disaster: for field work, the peasants
needed arms. Then the women whose belly was not rounding
recited their beads and lit a candle in front of his statue. They
even went so far as to devastately rub their belly, and the day
of her feast went on pilgrimage to the miraculous sources of
Saint-Guenole chapels.

Its priapic reputation certainly comes from the confusion of its

name with the Latin « Gignere » meaning begotten. Moreover,
Saint Guénolé was attributed by the popular devotion of the
virtues of miracle worker: he gave strength to the children and
helped them to walk; he cured warts, headaches and neuralgia;
it was also invoked if rainy weather threatened harvests.
Saint Guénolé is generally represented either as a simple monk
or as an abbot, mitred or not, carrying the book of monastic
rule.

In Collorec for example, a chapel is dedicated to him, which

contains two statues representing him, one as an abbot with his
cope, his monastic crown, his crozier and an open book, the
other as a simple monk without his butt and with a closed
book.

A statue represents Saint Guénolé in the company of Saint

Barbara in the Saint Gwénolé chapel in Plourac'h, and the
large stained glass window is dedicated to Saint and
Landévennec. The attribute of Saint Guénolé is generally a
goose (as on the statue of the abbey of Landévennec and that
of the fountain of Saint-Frégant).

SAINT GUERLICHON / GUERLUCHON

Saint Guérlichon (or Saint Guérluchon) is a syncretic phallic
saint venerated at Bourg-Dieu near Bourges, France. Before a
gradual transformation into Saint Guérlichon, it was an old
priapic statue that was worshiped by the surrounding people
during the Roman occupation of Gaul.

At Bourg-Dieu, there existed during the Roman occupation of

Gaul an old priapic statue, which was venerated by the
surrounding people. The veneration in which it unfolded and
the miracles with which it was accredited made it impossible
for the first missionaries and monks to destroy it.

He was therefore allowed to stay, but gradually turned into a

saint, St. Guérlichon, who did nothing to detract from his
former merit or reputation. The barren women flocked to the
sanctuary, and the pilgrimages and a number of days of
devotion to this saint were followed.

The pieces of this statue infused into the water gave a

miraculous drink that ensured the design. Similar sanctuaries
were erected in other places by the monks.

The destruction of statues over time resulted in an evolution of

worship, dictated by the monks that of the admiration of a
chimney church organ to cure infertility.

It is therefore surprising to see such saint being prayed by

Christians. Certain LGBT Catholic group of France continues
to be devout of these saints there and to pay tribute to them as
they can.