SAINT PRIAPUS
An Account of Phallic
Survivals within the Christian Church
and some of their Pagan Origins
CHRISTIAN PHALLIC RITUAL PHALLIC AMULETS
CHURCH FERTILITY CUSTOM MIN & PRIAPUS PHALLI IN CHURCH
"ANTIQUITY HAS MADE PRIAPUS A GOD, THE MIDDLE AGES RAISED HIM INTO A SAINT, AND THAT UNDER SEVERAL NAMES."
The following letter and illustration above is reprinted from Discourse on the Worship of Priapus by Richard Payne Knight (2nd edition 1865) and clearly shows that a form of phallicism existed in the Catholic Church at the end of the 18th century.
A letter from Sir William Hamilton, K.B.,
His Majesty's Minister at the Court of Naples,
to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.,
President of the Royal Society.
Naples, December 30, 1781
Sir,
Having last year made a curious discovery, that in a Province of this Kingdom, and not fifty miles from its Capital, a sort of devotion is still paid to Priapus, the obscene Divinity of the
Ancients (though under another denomination), I thought it a circumstance worth
recording; particularly, as it offers a fresh proof of the similitude of the
Popish and Pagan Religion, so well observed by Dr.Middleton, in his celebrated
Letter from Rome: and therefore I mean to deposit the authentic proofs of this
assertion in the British Museum, when a proper opportunity shall offer. In the
mean time I send you the following account, which, I flatter myself, will amuse
you for the present, and may in future serve to illustrate those
proofs.
I had long ago discovered, that the women and children of the lower class, at Naples, and in its neighbourhood, frequently wore, as an ornament of dress, a sort of Amulets, (which they imagine to be a preservative from the mal occhii, evil eyes, or enchantment) exactly similar to those which were worn by the ancient Inhabitants of this Country for the very same purpose, as likewise for their supposed invigorating influence; and all of which have evidently a relation to the Cult of Priapus. Struck with this conformity in ancient and modern superstition, I made a collection of both the ancient and modern Amulets of this sort, and placed them together in the British Museum, where they remain. The modern Amulet most in vogue represents a hand clinched, with the point of the thumb thrust betwixt the index and middle finger; the next is a shell; and the third is a half-moon. These Amulets (except the shell, which is usually worn in its natural state) are most commonly made of silver, but sometimes of ivory, coral, amber, crystal, or some curious gem, or pebble. We have a proof of the hand above described having a connection with Priapus, in a most elegant small idol of bronze of that Divinity, now in the Royal Museum of Portici, and which was found in the ruins of Herculaneum: it has an enormous Phallus, and, with an arch look and gesture, stretches out its right hand in the form above mentioned; and which probably was an emblem of consummation: and as a further proof of it, the Amulet which occurs most frequently amongst those of the Ancients (next to that which represents the simple Priapus), is such a hand united with the Phallus; of which you may see several specimens in my collection in the British Museum. One in particular, I recollect, has also the half-moon joined to the hand and Phallus; which half-moon is supposed to have an allusion to the female menses. The shell, or concha veneris, is evidently an emblem of the female part of generation. It is very natural then to suppose, that the Amulets representing the Phallus alone, so visibly indecent, may have been long out of use in this civilized capital; but I have been assured, that it is but very lately that the Priests have put an end to the wearing of such Amulets in Calabria, and other distant Provinces of this Kingdom.
A new road having been made last year from this Capital to the Province of Abruzzo, passing through the City of Isernia (anciently belonging to the Samnites, and very populous), a person of liberal education, employed in that work, chanced to be at Isernia just at the time of the celebration of the Feast of the modern Priapus, St.Cosmo; and having been struck with the singularity of the ceremony, so very similar to that which attended the ancient Cult of the God of the Gardens, and knowing my taste for antiquities, told me of it. From this Gentleman’s report, and from what I learnt on the spot from the Governor of Isernia himself, having gone to that city on purpose in the month of February last, I have drawn up the following account, which I have reason to believe is strictly true. I did intend to have been present at the Feast of St.Cosmo this year; but the indecency of this ceremony having probably transpired, from the country's having been more frequented since the new road was made, orders have been given, that the Great Toe of the Saint should no longer be exposed. The following is the account of the Fête of St.Cosmo and Damiano, as it actually was celebrated at Isernia, on the confines of Abruzzo, in the Kingdom of Naples, so late as in the year of our Lord 1780.
On
the 27th of September, at Isernia, one of the most ancient cities of the Kingdom
of Naples, situated in the Province called the Contado di Molise, and adjoining
to Abruzzo, an annual Fair is held, which lasts three days. The situation of
this Fair is on a rising ground, between two rivers, about half a mile from the
town of Isernia; on the most elevated part of which there is an ancient church,
with a vestibule. The architecture is of the style of the lower ages; and it is
said to have been a church and convent belonging to the Benedictine Monks in the
time of their poverty. This church is dedicated to St.Cosmus and Damianus. On
one of the days of the Fair, the relics of the Saints are exposed, and
afterwards carried in procession from the cathedral of the city to this church,
attended by a prodigious concourse of people. In the city, and at the fair, ex-voti (votive offering) of wax, representing the male
parts of generation, of various dimensions, some even of the length of a palm,
are publicly offered to sale. There are also waxen vows, that represent other
parts of the body mixed with them; but of these there are few in comparison of
the number of the Priapi. The devout distributors of these vows carry a basket
full of them in one hand, and hold a plate in the other to receive the money,
crying aloud, "St.Cosmo and Damiano!"
If you ask the price of one, the answer is, più ci metti, più meriti: "The more you
give, the more's the merit." In the
vestibule are two tables, at each of which one of the canons of the church
presides, this crying out, Qui si
riceveno le Misse, e Litanie: "Here Masses and Litanies are received;" and
the other, Qui si riceveno li Voti:
“Here the Vows are received.” The
price of a Mass is fifteen Neapolitan grains, and of a Litany five grains. On
each table is a large basin for the reception of the different offerings. The
Vows are chiefly presented by the female sex; and they are seldom such as
represent legs, arms, etc., but most commonly the male parts of generation. The
person who was at this fête in the year 1780, and who gave me this account (the
authenticity of every article of which has since been fully confirmed to me by
the Governor of Isernia), told me also, that he heard a woman say, at the time
she presented a Vow, like that which is presented in Plate I. Fig. I, Santo Cosimo benedetto, cosi lo voglio:
"Blessed St.Cosmo, let it be like this;" another, St.Cosimo, ti ringrazio: "St.Cosmo, I
thank you." The Vow is never
presented without being accompanied by a piece of money, and is always kissed by
the devotee at the moment of presentation.
At the great altar of the church, another of its canons attends to give the holy unction, with the oil of St.Cosmo, which is prepared by the same receipt as that of the Roman Ritual, with the addition only of the prayer of the Holy Martyrs, St.Cosmus and Damianus. Those who have an infirmity in any of their members, present themselves at the great altar, and uncover the member affected (not even excepting that which is most frequently represented by the ex-voti); and the reverend canon anoints it, saying, Per intercessionem beati Cosmi, liberet te ab omni malo. Amen.
The ceremony finishes by the canons of the church dividing the spoils, both money and wax, which must be to a very considerable amount, as the concourse at this fête is said to be prodigiously numerous.
The oil of St.Cosmo is in high repute for its invigorating quality, when the loins, and parts adjacent, are anointed with it. No less than 1400 flasks of that oil were either expended at the altar in unctions, or charitably distributed, during this fête in the year 1780; and as it is usual for every one, who either makes use of the oil at the altar, or carries off a flask of it, to leave an alms for St.Cosmo, the ceremony of the oil becomes likewise a very lucrative one to the canons of the church.
I am, Sir,
With great truth and regard,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
William Hamilton.
I have read that the wax phalli from Isernia are still hidden away at the British Museum although they are in a very poor state of preservation.
French phallic amulets of a type popular with Christian
pilgrims during the Middle Ages - they show a phallus or vulva on one side and a
cross motif on the other. Many such items were discovered by M.Forgeais of Paris
in the River Seine during the mid-19th century. [Discourse on the
Worship of Priapus by Payne Knight and Thomas Wright (2nd edition 1865)
Plate XXXIII]
At the Church of San Fedele in France there were
discovered some medals dating from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries
that had on one side the "benign" symbol in the form of a cross with other
decorations with what the symbol actually entailed on the reverse side (which
was a phallic symbol). Some signs were "male" and others were "female" and
were identified by the respective genitalia found on the reverse side. [A History of Phallic Worship by
Thomas Wright (Dorset Press, 1992) Plate IX]
Not only were phallic amulets popular throughout Medieval Europe, continuing the ancient Roman belief in their powers of protection from evil influences, but so were a multitude of phallic saints known by many different names. One of the most popular was named after the first bishop of Lyons - Foutin - whose distinguishing feature was a large wooden phallus. Childless women visited his statue in churches where they scrapped his wooden 'member' and, after mixing this with water, drank the liquid as a remedy for their infertility "or administered it to their husbands in the belief that it would make them vigorous". Veneration of this saint continued in France at least until the middle of the 18th century.
Some ancient pagan 'fertility' stones close to or within Christian places of worship were sanctioned by the clergy as objects of fecundity to be used by infertile parishioners. Barren women visited a chapel at Bouille-Loret (Deux-Sevres) where there was a small menhir, and habitually rubbed a stone in a chapel near Ciney (namur). They also performed a naked ritual of rubbing themselves on a church pillar at Orcival (Puy-de-Dome).
The clergy were adept at using their position in society for their own lustful designs. A Spanish priest and doctor of canon law in 15th century Rome was attracted to several nuns at the same time and attempted to seduce them by teaching that, since they were all spouses of Christ, carnal affection between them was a duty - he was denounced, found guilty and sentenced to a short period of banishment from the city.
The 15th century Rector of Paris University and Secretary to the anti-Pope Benedict XIII deplored the universal vices of the clergy. He mentions that the prevalence of priests keeping concubines was insufficient in stopping the further harassment of other women , and that the great mass of clergy were abandoned to worldly ambition and vice. He concluded by the revealing remark that it was better to have immoral priests than none at all. [H.C.Lea Sacerdotal Celibacy, 1932 edition, pages 328 and 366]
The capital of a column in the church of Egra in
Bohemia (from Discourse on the Worship of Priapus by Payne Knight and
Thomas Wright (2nd edition 1865) Plate XXXI fig.6.
Amun-Min the ubiquitous Egyptian deity of
fertility and protection. When his face is black this symbolises the dark
fertile silt of the annual Nile flood; when green he represents the vegetation
that springs from this fertile earth.
Min was one of the most ancient of Egyptian deities and is always depicted with an erect phallus, sometimes ejaculating sperm, and wearing a crown topped by two straight plumes: in his right hand he holds a raised flail used to thresh husks from the ears of corn to make it edible - hence the flail, or whip, is a symbol of power and fertility. Min was later joined with the great solar deity Amun to become the sun god's fertility aspect. Egyptian religion had a profound influence on pagan cults of Greece and Rome, both of whom conquered and occupied Egypt for many centuries. This influence later passed into early Christianity which absorbed much of the outward ritualistic symbols of pagan Egypt, as well as esoteric thought and knowledge that found expression in Gnostic Christian literature. Much of this thought, although vigorously attacked by the 'official' Church, found its way into numerous powerful heresies that flourished throughout medieval Western Europe and found an outlet in the adoration of phallic Christian saints within the Catholic Church.
The Roman god Priapus who originally protected and gave fertility
to orchards and gardens but later became a general guardian against all
malignant influences. Here he is depicted weighing his phallus with a basket of
fruit at his feet - drawing from a fresco in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii,
Italy. (The culture of Pompeii was abruptly ended in 79 A.D. by an eruption of mount Vesuvius.) 
Priapus, the God of the phallus and male sexuality, weighs his prodigous member.
During research for this project I came across an interesting reference to stone phalli concealed within the altars of pre mid-14th century English churches. The quote below comes from The Roots of Witchcraft by Michael Harrison (Frederick Muller Ltd, London, 1973, ISBN 0 584 102321) pages 209-210.
"Just after the end of World War II I had a clear, detailed and perfectly unambiguous answer to that question (what people in the Middle Ages really went to worship in church) from the late Professor Geoffrey Webb, formerly Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, and then Secretary of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments.....(he) was assigned, immediately after World War II, to the task of surveying such of England's ancient churches as had suffered damage through aerial and other bombardment.....The revelation was by way of an altar top, a slab of stone that an explosion had shifted from its original position, thereby revealing the interior of the altar - for the first time since the eleventh or twelfth century. Within that altar was a god - or, rather, The God. This it was to which all those ambiguous, aberrant carvings, on ceiling boss and corbel, misericord and door-panel, hinted and pointed..... Had this discovery been unique, it would still have been of the first importance. But, far from being unique, it was merely an invitation to Professor Webb to seek and find the altar-concealed, worshipful images elsewhere. He found that ninety per cent of all churches examined of a date up to, say, the Black Death of 1348.....had The God concealed within the altar. And in what form was the Ancient Life-giver portrayed? Why, in a form rendered familiar to all who have visited a Hindoo temple. As a stone lingam; that master-symbol of the ancient, world-wide Fertility Cult: the universal Phallus by which all animal life was generated."
A corbel in the interior of a church at Saint-Radegonde, Poitiers,
France, drawing from a photograph in Images of Lust, Sexual carvings on
Medieval Churches by A.Weir and J.Jerman Batsford, London, 1986, ISBN
0-7134-5110-6, Plate 45 page 93.
Webb's discovery is obviously of immense significance since it puts into context the figures of Green Men, Shiela-na-gigs and other decidedly non-Christian images which can be found in churches throughout Western Europe (and beyond?). I have spent many hours attempting to track down Webb's report and have contacted at least two to three dozen of the best known British institutions, libraries and museums (including the British Library and Lambeth Palace Library) which might have held his work - all to no avail. No one seems to know anything about it. As a last resort I obtained a copy of Webb's will to ascertain whether he had left his private papers to any institution. Again no luck. Did he destroy the phallic part of his surveys? Has it been secreted away somewhere as being too explosive? If any reader has any knowledge or suggestions as to further lines of enquiry please let me know.
The Church attempted to legitimise open worship of the phallus by replacing the penis of Priapus and substituting the supposed foreskin of Jesus - the only part of his body which did not ascend to heaven. A 17th century author recounted how the 'marquis' of Antwerp (Belgium) was so shocked by the adoration of the phallus by the city's inhabitants that "wishing to bring (them) back to the true faith of Christ, he had the prepuce of Jesus sent to them from Jerusalem to replace the phallus of Ters (the local protective phallic deity of the city)." His wish had little effect.
There are at least a dozen foreskins of Jesus on record as well as quite a few navels. In the Museum of the Middle Ages (Cluny, Paris) there is a late medieval reliquary made of precious metals that supposedly housed the umbilical cord of Jesus. In a virgin birth, when the Holy Mother was believed by devout Christians to have remained 'intact', before, during, and even after giving birth, one wonders where the end of the placenta was attached!
Excerpt The Saviour's foreskins
THE FORESKINS, STILL extant, of the Saviour, are
reckoned to be twelve in number. One was in the possession of the Monks of
Loulombs; another at the Abbey of Charroux; a third at Hildesheim, in Germany; a
fourth at Rome, in the Church of St jean-de-Latran; a fiffh at Antwerp; a sixth
at Puy-en-Velay, in the Church of Notre Dame, etc. [from Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs]