The death and veneration of Michael Jackson reminds me of my favorite medieval saint: Saint Guinefort.
In the thirteenth century, a Dominican friar by the name of Etienne de Bourbon was preaching in the village of Sandrans, near Lyon, when he heard during confession that many of the local woman had taken their children to Saint Guinefort. Etienne had never heard of this saint, and wanted to learn more, so he investigated.
Much to his surprise, he discovered that Saint Guinefort was actually a dog . . . a greyhound, in fact. As the hagiography of Guinefort goes, he was a dog on a large estate. One day, when his master and mistress had left the house, a snake entered into the castle and began to approach the baby’s cradle. Guinefort attacked and killed the snake, and was badly hurt himself in the fight. He stayed to guard the cradle, and so when the parents returned, they found the cradle knocked over, and both dog and cradle covered in blood. Assuming that Guinefort had attacked the baby, the lord killed him with his sword—only to find the baby safe and unharmed, and the corpse of the serpent torn to pieces.
Realizing their error, they made a shrine for the unjustly-slain Guinefort’s corpse, and began to venerate it. Etienne was none too impressed with the locals’ veneration of a dog as a saint, so he made them destroy the shrine and burn the remains of Guinefort—but that apparently did not end the cult of St. Guinefort, because it survived all the way into the twentieth century. If this story seems familiar, it may be because a version of it is found in the Disney film, Lady and the Tramp.
Many commentators have expressed dismay at the veneration of Michael Jackson as some sort of martyr to celebrity, and he appears to be heading to the pantheon of celebrity with such figures as Princess Diana, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe, where the veneration of the saints is continued on through kitschy commemorative plates and coins. Some see this as a failure of our society.
I see the cult of Jackson, like the cult of Guinefort, as a failure of the Church.
In both cases, the cults were propelled by two engines: the ignorance of the people, and the desire to venerate. As with the angels, we are created as creatures of praise. We seem to be hardwired to praise something, to worship anything. Just as we will eat rotten food and filthy water if no healthy food and clean water are available, we will venerate dogs and celebrities if we see no truly worthy objects of veneration before us.
Etienne’s effort to stamp out the cult of Guinefort failed because he did not address the need of the people to venerate. Their impulse was good; it was simply directed at the wrong object and without providing a new object for veneration, Etienne was dooming the people of Sandrans to eventually drift back to their old ways.
It does the Church little good to cluck and shake our heads at the dismaying display of veneration for Michael Jackson, for in truth he is a martyr, a martyr to our culture’s true god: Celebrity. If we simply cut down Celebrity’s Asherah poles—John & Kate, Paris Hilton, Barack Obama—we leave the job half-completed, ensuring new idols will spring up in their place. If we take away rotten food and filthy water, we must replace it with healthy meat and milk. The worship of false saints, be they greyhounds or pop stars, needs to be replaced by the worship of the Lord. As the Philistines found with their idol Dagon, false idols cannot stand in the face of the one true Lord (1 Sam 5:2-5).
June 29th, 2009 | 12:54 pm
Bravo. Fully agreed.
It is so easy for us as Christians to criticize popular culture without realizing that we are called to be culture builders and have failed in this job.
June 29th, 2009 | 1:20 pm
Bravo?? I disagree, wholeheartedly. ‘A failure’ on the part of the Church is no more responsible for the cult of Michael Jackson than it is for any sin.
June 29th, 2009 | 2:08 pm
Commenting on Michael Jackson as some sort of saint requires us also to examine how we deal with celebrities. Let’s be honest and say that the modern culture might even be more obsessed with discrediting celebrities and outing them as objects of derision. Even more, American seem to rejoice in the rehabilitation of politicians from Nixon to Clinton, and jailed notables such as Martha Stewart.
There’s a curious cult wanting to elevate saints, watch them trip and fall, then be restored to a (hopefully) chagrined greatness.
As the Culture War accelerates in the face of Republican humiliation, we see it on both sides of the ideological divide: a rallying around the heroes, Obama and Palin, and no spared effort to embarrass or humiliate them, or, failing that, their loyal followers.
It seems to me the current culture is more about anti-saints, and Jackson is no different. Stardom in his young life was followed by weirdness and scandal, and now in death, by adulation again. Yet there are those who want to continue the cycle of hero/failure even now.
Maybe the Romans were on to something: de mortuis nil nisi bonum
June 29th, 2009 | 2:30 pm
[...] Jackson’s death is getting in the Catholic blogosphere. Via David Gibson, there’s this piece up at First Things today. I think there’s something less of the comparison between Lady/St Guinefort, and more to the [...]
June 29th, 2009 | 6:04 pm
[...] 29, 2009 in culture, worship | by Brian Visaggio Absolutely stunning, amazing post over at First Thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson, or more properly, the insanity that is the popular response. [...]
June 30th, 2009 | 12:15 am
As a lifelong Michael Jackson fan (met him and his music in the late 70s/early 80s and never turned back) and a serious Catholic, I’ve always regarded Michael and his great talents as a very limited, but still very powerful and highly accessible display of God’s creative powers. I’m never been one to elevate him beyond that and am extremely wary of anyone who does. Indeed, the man was no mere celebrity; he had extraordinary talents that in my opinion merited the attention. But he, as we are very aware, also had serious flaws, shortcomings and complications; he was a person, like all of us, who needed to find the salvation found in God’s grace.
If anything, I have hoped and at times prayed that some of his more extreme fans would ask *who* endowed him this talent and follow the breadcrumbs back to the Father.
July 3rd, 2009 | 7:21 pm
Actually, in Catholic countries, it is very common to “canonize” popular singers. In Argentina, both Carlos Gardel and the cumbia singer Gilda are venerated by the populace and intercession is asked of them. In Mexico, the image of Jesus Malverde is basically a copy of the face of the popular singer, Pedro Infante. And the way Mexicans in this country think of Selena…
The common thread seems to be one of violent or untimely death (shades of Rene Girard). Those interested can google “folk saints” and find my blog. I write a lot about this topic.
July 3rd, 2009 | 11:22 pm
Thank the Lord, someone has been inspired
to note the complete nonsense of revering a
human in place of the Son of God who died
for us all on Calvary. Is there no sanity in this
world?
July 5th, 2009 | 2:06 pm
The headline in a local paper the day after Michael Jacksons’s death read “The King of Pop now Reigns from Heaven.” I am not sure where MJ is right now, but I am fairly certain that it is NOT heaven! (Fortunately for you all though, I don’t get to make the final decision)
July 7th, 2009 | 1:13 pm
Just as God is the final judge, so let it be. Let us all remain graceful, positive and true to our faith in whatever higher power we choose to serve. This too will pass.
July 8th, 2009 | 8:41 pm
To whomever responded to Rebecca,
I think Rebecca meant that, if Jackson isn’t in hell, he’s probably in purgatory, not heaven at this point. Which means we should pray for him. That’s what the Church usually assumes about the dead, by the way — that they’r in purgatory and we should pray for them, not that they’re in heaven yet.
July 11th, 2009 | 5:52 pm
If you knew anything about Michael Jackson you would know that he had a very strong faith, was very prayerful and always maintained that his creativity came from God. He gave hundreds of millions of dollars to charity and is actually in the Guiness Book for it. He helped thousands of sick and disadvantaged children. He had busloads of inner city kids come to Neverland and enjoy all it had to offer for free.
If you are true Christians you will not judge him based on false tabloid lies.
July 13th, 2009 | 5:24 pm
Thoughtful, and beautifully written, yes. But while so many find it hard to see Jackson as a saint, I find it hard not to. What’s not to see? A shy, soft-spoken, tormented man who frequently spoke of his devotion to God and to Christ’s commandments.
Sure, if you believe he was a child molester, which I don’t, you can’t see this. But remove that blight from his history, and look at the facts- more charity work, more money to unfortunate people, more hospital visits, more ministry to poor and sick children than any other celeb or philanthropist, including Princess Diana. I had no idea myself, as a fan, how extensive his charity work was. He worked harder on it than he did on entertainment. Millions and millions of dollars.
Sure, the church has done all kinds of charity work. But it has serious blights that were not ‘not guilty.’ So serious, Christ have mercy. Jackson was accused of ‘fondling’ and found innocent. The church is hip-deep in endless zillions of pedophile charges- and guilty, guilty, guilty. The whole time we’ve been pointing at Michael, we’ve missed what was in our own halls.
And that’s just a small fry of our history of murder and madness. So perhaps instead of calling Michael a dog, we could learn a thing or two about God from him, as surely he was a messenger, even in his torture and pain.
Thank you.
August 18th, 2009 | 10:07 am
I don’t see how you can compare Saint Guinefort to Michael Jackson. I firmly believe animals are equal, if not higher than us in the spiritual hierachy and miracles DID in fact take place at the shrine of Saint Guinefort. It is a TREMENDOUS FAILURE on the part of the church that Saint Guinefort is not officially recognized, who’s to say animals are not likewise faithful unto God? We are but men and women and cannot possibly know God’s ways “for my ways are not your ways” (pretty sure that quote is fairly well known, even amongst the secular world).
I do NOT believe Jackson is deserving of sainthood, far from it (especially if he was a paedophile, which I’m uncertain of), he did not die for love or faith, no miracles have occured in relation to him whatsoever, he may have been well loved by many members of the public but he is NOT a saint nor should he be deemed one.
As for all the animals out there, MANY of them are worthy of sainthood. MANY have played MASSIVE parts in God’s plans and who’s to say they are not equal in the eyes of the Lord?
Jackson may be in Heaven now or Hell or Purgatory or God knows where else but as far as the topic of his saintliness goes. He’s a flop. He is a celebrity and that’s it, he’s most certainly not a being of spirituality.
God bless Saint Guinefort.
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