Showing posts with label Dunstan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dunstan. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

St Dunstan and the Devil: Why We Hang Horseshoes Over Doors


A French painting by Antoine St Aubert seems to illustrate one version of the St Dunstan legend, or a French legend like it. Religious history seems to be full of blacksmith and farrier saints!

Today is celebrated as the feast day of St Dunstan, a 10th Century saint who lived a quiet life as a smith and a musician in Sussex, England, until one night the devil paid him a visit and one of the great traditions of folklore was born: the nailing of a horseshoe over a door.