I've always been intrigued by the number of so-called "pagan" beliefs and rituals from various cultures which were incorporated into Christianity in its formative years. Unfortunately, these days the word pagan has become almost synonymous with devil worship in the minds of far too many people. This is totally inaccurate! According to my research, the word's origins go back to the Latin word paganus, which means nothing more sinister than country-dwellers. Simply put, pagans were country folk who clung to their older, rural religions based on Nature worship. They believed in the divine order of Nature in a world that had two halves—masculine and feminine (sound familiar? as in Ying and Yang). Their gods and goddesses worked together to maintain a balance of power between the two halves, thereby keeping the world in harmony.

Part of the reason for the inaccurate concepts about pagans is that many of their religions' divine symbols (as well as their gods and goddesses) were severely degraded by the Church's efforts to promote mass conversions and eradicate these religions. Over the centuries since, the original meanings have been lost and replaced by new ones; they have become symbols of "evil". And, if these pagan symbols are evil, then those who continue to believe in and use them must also be evil. Think it's called "guilt by association" in today's vernacular.

I once wrote a college paper about creation myths. During the research for that project, I discovered that if you compared the mythology of a civilization side by side with its history, there was a definite correlation:  Their myths and beliefs about their gods evolved along with their history. Changes in the structure of their theological hierarchy and beliefs were directly related to the changes taking place in their country, such as invasions by other peoples with different beliefs. It was both eye-opening and fascinating.

After giving it careful consideration, I realized this made perfect sense. After all, the saying that history is written by the victors would also apply in the area of religion. The victorious invaders would most likely impose their religious beliefs on the people of the conquered lands (think Romans!). They would claim their gods were better and stronger because they had given them victory. Then a secondary war would begin between the gods of the invaders and the gods of the invaded countries. And sure enough, there are myths about such wars in the cultures of several lands. I'd always been interested in mythology in general, but this new insight made it even more interesting and gave me a whole new perspective on the entire genre.

Personally, I believe this same theological evolution occurred during the early years of the efforts to convert people to Christianity, all of whom probably had their own "family" of gods and myths. Over time some of these beliefs became a part of Christian rituals. Most of us are likely already familiar with some of the rites or seasonal celebrations (All Hallows' Eve, Christmas, Easter, to name but a few) now incorporated into Christianity which were originally part of the older Nature worship religions. The rationale behind the integration would have been to promote the conversion of as many people as possible from various countries to the new religion. Conversions would certainly have been much easier if people were already familiar with some of the concepts they were being asked to adopt. The fusing of pagan symbols, dates and rituals into Christianity resulted in the creation of a religious tradition which was much more readily acceptable to a wide range of people.

The unicorn's gradual integration into Christian doctrine is only one such instance. This section focuses on exploring the unicorn's ties to Christianity. Have been doing some reading on the subject and decided I'd like to share some of the concepts uncovered.

Did you know the unicorn is mentioned in the Bible? I didn't until I started working on this web site and came across the Biblical references when I was collecting quotations from the many sources that mention the unicorn. How did the unicorn get into the Bible? A supposedly mythical creature in the Bible? How did that come about?, I started to wonder. So commenced my interest in exploring the unicorn's links to Christianity.

Some of the things you'll find here are tales about unicorns from the Talmud and Jewish folklore as well as Biblical references to unicorns. Will also be looking at the ways in which the unicorn's spiritual association as a Christian symbol grew stronger and more powerful in the minds and hearts of early Christians and how the unicorn came to symbolize Christ and the early Church.

There is, obviously, a lot of conflicting information on this subject from a wide variety of sources. What I've tried to do is collect, extrapolate and combine the many references to present a general overview of some of the stories and beliefs about the unicorn's role in Christianity. Some of the information I've discovered is fascinating, some of it is rather ludicrous by today's standards. What I've presented here should be viewed in the context of the times in which it was promulgated.

Please remember that the ideas presented in this section are not an attempt to encourage or discourage anyone's religious beliefs. They are being presented as a topic of interest concentrating specifically on the unicorn's ties to Christianity, not Christianity (or any other religion) itself. And, not all of the information presented herein represents my personal views, but rather ideas to be considered. While I understand that some of my personal viewpoints may not be acceptable to some, I truly hope the concepts presented here will be taken in the spirit with which they've been gathered from a number of sources. I strongly believe we all have the right to explore varying viewpoints on different subjects and choose to accept or reject the concepts presented. I'm not asking that you agree with me, only that you acknowledge my right to believe differently than yourself. After all, "freedom of choice" extends to all areas of our lives—or at least it should.

ales In The Talmud, Jewish Folklore And Other Folklore

• The Unicorn In The Garden Of Eden

• Noah And The Unicorn

• Daniel And The Unicorn

• David And The Unicorn

he Biblical Unicorn

he Unicorn And Christ

Saint Justine - Virgin Martyr

he Hunt Of The Unicorn:  A Christian Interpretation

While today there are only "references" to the unicorn in early versions of the Old Testament, there are actual tales about it in the Talmud, Jewish folklore and other folklore which are not contained in the Bible. There are stories of the unicorn in the Garden of Eden, with Noah, Job, and the prophets Daniel and David.

The Unicorn In the Garden Of Eden

Swiss Tapestry:  The Unicorn In The Garden Of Eden

The unicorn signifies future redemption

In one story, the unicorn is the first animal named by Adam and thus was considered sacred by God.

When God created the earth, he made a river which flowed from the Garden of Eden. The river split into four braches... Everywhere the rivers ran, the land was filled with living things. There were vines, spiky yucca and dry-dropping quince, mosses, papyrus reeds and citrus. And there were creatures. They all were beautiful. But only two of them had names—Adam and Eve, who did not realize that they had dominion over the others.

Then God told Adam to name the animals. All the creatures gathered around: those that crawled and those that flew and those that swam in the rivers; creatures with four legs and creatures with two, those with bushy tails and those who could see in the dark. They were all equal, and Adam had always been one of them. Yet as he began to name them, he drew himself apart. And the first animal he named was the unicorn.

When the Lord heard the name that Adam had spoken, he reached down and touched the tip of the single horn growing from the animal's forehead. From that moment on, the unicorn was elevated above other beasts.

 

Adam and Eve rode upon the unicorn's back through the winding pathways of the garden, and all of creation lived in peace until Adam and Eve became curious about that which had been forbidden. Then they tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge and, ashamed, they clothed themselves with woven leaves. When God saw what they had done, he drove them from the Garden of Eden and barred the entrance with cherubs who waved flaming swords. But the Lord gave the unicorn the choice of remaining in paradise or accompanying Adam and Eve out into the world, where there was pestilence and war, and pain in childbirth and in death. The unicorn looked to the angels hovering above the gate with their burning swords, and looked to Adam and Eve—and followed them. Forever after the unicorn was blessed for its compassion, for it could have stayed in that place of ideal beauty and delight, but instead, out of love, it chose the hard way—the human way.

--- Nancy Hathaway, The Unicorn (1981)

Noah And The Unicorn

There are several versions of the story about Noah and the ark and why the unicorn did not make it onto the ark with the rest of the animals:

• The unicorn, being the strongest of all the animals, chose to swim rather than ride in the ark. (Some accounts attribute this to the unicorn's arrogance.) For forty days and forty nights the unicorn swam in the rising seas. Sometimes it swam close to the ark, other times it swam far off in the distance. When the rains finally stopped the unicorn was still swimming. When the waters began to recede, Noah sent out a dove to find dry land. After a week, the dove returned with a leaf in its mouth. Noah then released all of the birds aboard the ark. They flew in all directions looking for land. But there was no land in sight yet, only a single olive tree which was at least three days' journey away. The unicorn, with its keen eyesight, saw the birds go out and followed them. When no land was found, the birds got tired, with not enough strength to return to the ark. They saw the unicorn's head and horn in the water below and landed upon it to rest. One by one they landed upon the horn, piling higher and higher on the unicorn's head and horn. Finally the weight was too much for even the strong unicorn and it eventually drowned.

• When Noah was loading all of the animals of the different species aboard the ark, they went peaceably—except for the unicorn. It was too rambunctious, prodding other animals with its horn, demanding more space, and arrogantly lording it over the other animals. Finally Noah, in a moment of anger, demanded the unicorn leave the ark. He quickly regretted his decision and searched all of the nearby groves, calling repeatedly. But the unicorn had galloped off towards the horizon and never returned.

• Or maybe the unicorn was just too big to fit on the ark. According to ancient rabbis, the unicorn was as large as Mount Tabor and its head was almost ten miles long—only the tip of its nose would have fit on the ark. So when the rains began and the water started to rise, the unicorn disappeared in the flood.

• And . . .here is a fantasy representing one author's explanation why unicorns were not on the ark!

There is a story which centers around Daniel, a prophet from the Old Testament. Daniel was a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams, the soothsayer for King Nebuchadnezzar. At night, his dreams were visionary. From them he gained great secrets and could tell the future. In one of Daniel's dreams, he first encountered the unicorn.

In his dream, Daniel was transported to the palace at Susa. There he saw a great ram standing near the bank of the river Ulai. The ram had two horns which pushed so mightily "westward and northward and southward that no beasts might stand Before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of hand; but he did according to his will and became great." With each breath, the ram grew stronger, more fierce and warlike. Before long it was invincible. Then from out of the west came a unicorn with a single mighty horn between its eyes. It lowered its head and horn and stalked toward the ram. With every step, the water in the river rippled, breaking against the banks with the force of a tidal wave. Then it charged the ram "in the fury of its power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him and smote the ram and brake his two horns and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him."

Upon trampling the ram into the depths of the water, the unicorn began to grow to the heights of heaven and became invincible, its horn, now tipped with blood. When his power was at its greatest, the horn broke off and out from it sprang four other horns, pointing to the four quarters of the earth.

Initially, the meaning of this dream was not apparent to Daniel. While searching for its meaning, the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel in the likeness of a man and told him of the dream's significance:

The ram's two horns represented the kings of Medea and Persia who together ruled most of the world known to the prophet. The unicorn's single horn was the Greek king who would overthrow them. The four horns which replaced the single horn were the four kings who would succeed him and divide up the Persian empire between them.

Daniel related this information to King Nebuchadnezzar and the events played out in history as had been foretold. For the unicorn of Daniel's vision is believed to be Alexander the Great, who would conquer the land. The four principal successors of Alexander were:  Ptolemy I of Egypt, Seleucus of Babylonia, Antigonus of Syria and Asia Minor and Antipater of Macedonia and Greece. Alexander has been linked with unicorns ever since.

NOTE:  Daniel's prophecy wasn't actually all that "prophetic" since the this story appears in the eighth chapter of a book which was written many years after the events foreseen occurred. Think we would call it hindsight.

It is partly from this tale and others like it that the unicorn became a symbol for the protector of dreams and dreamers. Tales such as these also helped explain to many people the once visible presence of unicorns in the world. While for others, they only magnified the element of mysticism surrounding the animal and awakened a spiritual fascination for unicorns.

To many, the story of Daniel and the unicorn reflects great changes in history. To others, Daniel's dream is the first link between the unicorn and Jesus Christ. The ram symbolized not only Rome as it rose to great power, but also all the other religions that would fall to the teachings of Christ. Thus, the connection between Jesus and the unicorn was foreshadowed in the Old Testament.

David was the youngest of eight sons and was a psalmist. He would wander the hills while tending his family's sheep creating songs on his harp. He was often picked upon by his brothers and felt the family laid unjust responsibilities on him. One day he decided to explore a distant mountain to help him forget his anger. As he began climbing, he felt a ringing in the air around him and his body seemed to buzz with new life. A magnificent sound arose from every direction, the sound of the name of God, and his body vibrated in tune with it.

David felt movement beneath his feet, a rumbling and trembling like an earthquake. He continued to climb and the movements of the mountain increased. Then he realized this was not a mountain, but the back of a great unicorn! He climbed on, holding onto the flowing mane. Before long he saw the horn. It was made of gold and ivory and shone brighter than the sun.

As David stood on the head of the unicorn, the Lord sent down a great lion from the heavens. The lion fixed its eyes on David, and David began to tremble with fear. When the unicorn, fearing no other animal, knelt down in respect to the lion, David was sure he was about to die. David slid down from the back of the unicorn, crouching in fear as the lion slowly approached. As the lion drew near, the sounds in the air began to grow louder and stronger, and David was stirred in his heart to sing this song:

Be not thou far from me, O Lord:

Deliver my soul from the sword;

My darling from the power of the dog.

Save me from the lion's mouth;

For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

--- Psalm 22:20-22

The lion heard David's song and it paused a moment before approaching more slowly. The fierce beast soon stood before David, watching the young man tremble as he continued to sing his song. In amazement, David watched as the lion knelt at his feet.

In the New Testament, the genealogy of Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament (particularly those found in the Book of Isaiah) which indicated the Messiah would be a descendent of King David. While David would experience the unicorn first hand, his descendent Jesus would come to be symbolized by the unicorn.

So ... how did the unicorn make into the Bible? Well, according to my research, the story goes something like this:

In the 3rd Century BC, Ptolemy II of Egypt, who was born in Macedonia, commissioned a group of 72 learned Alexandrian Jewish scholars to translate the first seven books of the Bible from the Hebrew to Greek, a translation known as the Septuagint. He sent them to the island of Pharos near Alexandria and gave them seventy-two days to complete their work.

An animal involved in this translation was called in Hebrew a re'em. The Septuagint translated the name of this animal as monoceros (unicorn). Many later scholars describe this translation as a "blunder" and believe the correct translation for re'em to be "wild ox" (aurochs). But, the men of the Septuagint would not have known about this animal because it was already extinct in the Near East by their time. In his book Lore Of The Unicorn (1982), author Odell Shepard asserts that their blunder may in fact have been a "minor stroke of genius" when considered in the light of the information then available. The scholars had no idea which animal the Hebrew writers had in mind when speaking of the re'em, only that it was described as being fast, fierce, and indomitable, with a horned brow. Perhaps these traits awakened dim recollections in the minds of the scholars from the Greek writers or from accounts from India which could have been spread to Egypt by the caravan routes. Or perhaps they knew about the African rhinoceros. However it came about, the result was them calling this one unknown animal by the name of another. Thus, states Shepard, "So far as the western development of the unicorn legend is concerned, this translation is like the main jewel of a watch, holding the intricate structure together." These 72 scholars were responsible for leading the unicorn into the Bible.

The Septuagint translation was accepted as the inspired word of God, lending corroboration to tales of the existence of the unicorn by historians and Greek writers such as Ctesias, Pliny and Solinus. The name monoceros was Latinized into unicornis in the Vulgate, the standard Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church. The Vulgate was the work of St. Jerome, who reportedly began work on the Vulgate in A.D. 383 and continued it during the time he spent in Syria as a recluse. He used the Greek terms monoceros and rhinoceros along with the Latin unicornis, and there are several passages of the Vulgate in which the re'em becomes a rhinoceros. This remained a practice for centuries. Even in the late Middle Ages there are illustrations of an equine creature with a tapering horn on its forehead which are labeled rhinoceros.

So, the unicorn gained its place in the Church and in art based on the Septuagint translation of monoceros. Since this text, or the Vulgate version, were the ones most readily available to the Church Fathers when they began writing Bible commentaries, the unicorn was incorporated into early medieval theology. This created a branch of unicorn lore mostly independent from the classical Greek writings. The connecting thread between the two (at least until the late Renaissance) was the common use of the word monoceros. Its incorporation into the Church's writings helped to maintain belief in the Greek tradition and seemed to imply that the writings of the Greek scholars had the sanction of divine authority. Thus, the writings of Ctesias, Aelian, Pliny, and Solinus seemed to have been corroborated by Jehovah.

However, if you were to go in search of unicorns using any of the modern translations of the Bible, you'd be very disappointed. There is no mention of them at all, only wild oxen or buffalo. Yet, as can be seen from the seven quotations from the Old Testament referenced in the section below, there is at least one translation which definitely calls the unicorn a unicorn. This is the translation of the Bible prepared by Martin Luther, who lived in a time when people were familiar with the idea of unicorns. It is very likely that Luther's translation was strongly influenced by the two earlier versions of the scriptures described above.

Unicorn References In The Bible

NOTE: The references listed below are mostly from the Old Testament and appeared in earlier translations of the King James Version of the Bible. In the Revised Version, the word "unicorn" has almost consistently been changed to "wild ox" and that is likely the same for most versions of the Bible in use today.

God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of the unicorn.

 --- Numbers 23:22

His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of the unicorn: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth.

--- Deuteronomy 33:17

But my horn shall thou exalt like the horn of the unicorn; I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

 --- Psalm 92:10

Be not thou far from me, O Lord:

Deliver my soul from the sword;

My darling from the power of the dog.

Save me from the lion's mouth;

For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

--- Psalms 21:20-22

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

--- Psalms 29:1-6

And the unicorn shall come down with them, and the bullocks with their bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

--- Isaiah 34:6-7

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee or abide in thy crib?

    Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

    Will thou trust him because his strength is great? Or will thou leave thy labour to him?

    Will thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

--- Job 39:9-12

For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

--- Luke 1:69

NOTE - The online Catholic Encyclopedia states:

• "...the names of a large number of animals—over a hundred and twenty species—occur in the Scriptures. A closer examination of the way in which references to animals are introduced, the frequency of allusions to certain species, and the date of the documents in which they are found, may give a fair idea of the conditions of the country at the different stages of its history. The species, for instance, called in Hebrew re'em, very probably the aurochs, or wild ox, totally disappeared about the time of the Babylonian captivity..."

• "AUROCHS, or wild ox, is undoubtedly the rimu of the Assyrian inscriptions, and consequently corresponds to the re'em or rêm of the Hebrews. The latter word is translated sometimes ... by rhinoceros..., sometimes by unicorn... That the re'em, far from being unicorn, was a two-horned animal, is suggested by Ps., xxi, 22, and forcibly evidenced by Deut., xxxiii, 17, where its horns represent the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasses... Hence there is very little doubt that in all the above-mentioned places the word aurochs should be substituted for rhinoceros and unicorn. The aurochs is for the sacred poets a familiar emblem of untamed strength and ferocity. It no longer exists in western Asia."

While the unicorn legend may have gained valuable and lasting corroboration from the translation by the Septuagint, this alone does not account for its later prestige and popularity. Another influence was needed to bring the unicorn into the center of Christian myth and symbolism. Some believe this was the various collections of animal stories which were brought together in the 3rd Century after Christ in the city of Alexandria (then under Christian influence). Some of these stories were drawn from the "Beast Epic" of the world, and each story had a "moral" attached, along the line of Aesop's Fables.

This came at a time when the habit of allegorizing everything in the Scriptures and in the world around them was insinuating itself into the Christian mind, at least as it was then centered in Alexandria. The world of nature was more and more regarded as a storehouse of metaphors. There was a determination to see moral significance in everything. Facts were felt to be of little worth when compared with the moral truths they signified, and it was believed that God had created the lower beasts solely for the moral and spiritual instruction of mankind, especially those which seemed to have no other purpose.

These were some of the conditions surrounding the selection, fabrication and welding together of the stories which composed the Christian Beast Epic. In the early form of this collection of fables, each article would begin with a Scripture quotation followed by: "But the physiologus (the naturalist) says ...", then came a description of the major traits (real or imagined) of some animal with the moral deduction or lesson to be learned. Later copyists separated the animal descriptions and the morals from the texts they were intended to illustrate. Now each article began with the words: "The Physiologus says..." As a result, the entire collection was called by that so-called "author's" name. In later centuries in Europe it was called the "Bestiary". The descriptions of the unicorn in existing texts of the Physiologus vary somewhat, but generally this is what they say:  He is a small animal, like a kid, but surprisingly fierce for his size, with one very sharp horn on his head and no hunter is able to catch him by force. Yet there is a trick by which he may be taken. Men lead a virgin to the place where he most resorts and leave her there alone. As soon as he sees this virgin he runs and lays his head in her lap. She fondles him and he falls asleep. The hunters then approach and capture him and lead him to the palace of the king.

Official Christianity did what it could to repudiate this collection. In 496 it was condemned by Pope Gelasius as the work of "heretics". In spite of this and later attacks from the Church, it remained a familiar and influential body of work throughout Christendom for more than a thousand years. The popular tradition of the unicorn was disseminated chiefly by means of these Bestiaries throughout Europe, making it familiar where books were never read. His likeness was depicted on corbels and cornices, in stained glass, on tapestries, on church altars and even in the coats of arms of some princes of the Church. Eventually it was elevated to inclusion in the British Royal Coat of Arms.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the seven Old Testament references to the unicorn in the King James version of the Bible along with the dissemination of the Bestiaries helped familiarize the general public of the Middle Ages with the unicorn. It became a frequent Christian symbol. As early as the 4th Century, associations between Jesus Christ and the unicorn began to surface in the Church:

Who is the unicorn but the only begotten Son of God...Christ is the Power—therefore he is called the unicorn on the ground that he has one horn, that is, one common power with the father.

--- Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

 

The Unicorn has one horn because the Savior said "I and the Father are one."

--- (John 10:30)

Church leaders saw in the unicorn tale the continuing battle between Christ and Satan. The tale of serpents loosing venom into streams at night and the unicorn's purification of the stream with its horn were well known. The serpent was the common image for Satan. The healing powers of Christ were likened to the unicorn's. Leaders of the Church desired and searched for unicorn horns, likening them to the Holy Grail. Drinking from unicorn horns would heal the soul and cleanse the spirit. Some Medieval writers likened the unicorn to Christ, who raised up a horn of salvation for mankind.

It has in the middle of its brow a single horn...they lead forth a young virgin, pure and chaste, to whom, when the animal sees her, he approaches...Then the girl, while sitting quietly, reaches forth her hand and grasps the horn on the animal's brow, and at this point the huntsmen come up and take the beast... Likewise the Lord Christ has raised up for us a horn of salvation in the midst of Jerusalem, in the house of God, by the intercession of the mother of God, a virgin pure, chaste, full of mercy, immaculate, inviolate.

--- Anecdota Syriaca, J.P.N. Land, trans.

 

What would be now the state of us

But for his Unicorn,

And what would be the fate of us,

Poor sinners, lost, forlorn?

Oh, may He lead us on and up,

Unworthy though we be,

Into His Father's kingdom,

To dwell eternally!

The unicorn became a widely used symbol in the Church. It's image was routinely used in sermons and moral teachings. During the Middle Ages, the association of the unicorn with the virgin grew tremendously. A captured unicorn, its head upon the lap of a young virginal maiden became a common depiction. For many, this scene was reminiscent of images of the Christ child and the Madonna, and so there arose not only the connection between the unicorn and Christ, but also a connection between the virgin and Mary, the mother of Jesus.

One allegorical interpretation of the virgin and the unicorn stories likens the unicorn directly to Christ: its horn is said to signify the unity of Christ and the Father; its fierceness and defiance of the hunter are to remind us that neither principalities nor powers nor kingly thrones were able to control the Messiah against his will; the unicorn's small stature is a symbol of Christ's humility and its likeness to a kid of His association with sinful men. The virgin is said to represent the Virgin Mary and the huntsman is the Holy Spirit acting through the Angel Gabriel. Taken as a whole, the story of the unicorn's capture signifies the Incarnation of Christ, while its death represents Christ's martyrdom.

The Church was not always the best source of information about unicorns. Its interpretations often varied and conflicted with each other. At times the unicorn was a symbol of chastity for women and of valor and honor for men. At other times it represented solitude and the monastic life, even illicit sexuality and sodomy. The unicorn was used to symbolize not only earthy and heavenly love, but also death and violence. Talk about being a symbol for opposites! Seems the Church leaders used the unicorn as a symbol for whatever moral lesson they were trying to teach at a particular time or in whatever way it would benefit them most. It's no wonder there are so many conflicting views about this creature.

The cult of the adoration of the Virgin becomes evident in European literature beginning around the 12th Century. In German Marian mysticism, the name given to the mother of God was Maria unicornis (Mary of the unicorn). This scene is the center section of a triple panel cathedral altar. It's a representation of two holy events in Christian theology—the Annunciation and Conception. Mary shelters the unicorn on her lap, Gabriel is about to blow his horn to complete the Annunciation and Conception, while God the Father looks down in benediction from the heavens. The golden ball with the cross on top which God holds in his left hand may represent the Christ child waiting to be sent down to his mother. I'm guessing the town behind Mary and Gabriel is probably the city of Lubeck as it appeared early in the 16th Century.

Saint Justine - Virgin Martyr

Justine (Santa Giustina) is an Italian-born Christian saint who is believed to have been martyred in 304 AD. Justine was said to have been a young woman who took private vows of chastity and was killed during the Diocletianic Persecutions, begun under the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD). This was the last, and most severe, episode of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, lasting from 303 to 311.

Justine is a patron saint of Padua. Medieval legends described her as a disciple of Saint Peter the Apostle. Saint Prosdocimus, the first bishop of Padua, is said to have been Justine's spiritual father and his legend states he was sent from Antioch by Peter. The abbey and basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua houses art dedicated to the saint, including the Martyrdom of St. Justine by Paolo Veronese. The complex was founded in the 5th century on Justine's tomb, and in the 15th century became one of the most important monasteries in the area, until it was suppressed by Napoleon in 1810. It was reopened in 1919.

The tombs of several saints are also housed in the interior, including those of Justine, St. Prosdocimus, St. Maximus, St. Urius, St. Felicita, St. Julianus, as well as relics of the Apostle St. Matthias and the Evangelist St. Luke. In 1561, Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (and later an Italian saint), founded a college in the northern Italian city of Pavia which he dedicated to Justine. Today this college is known as Almo Collegio Borromeo, one of the oldest two colleges at the University of Pavia.

The legendary hunt for the elusive unicorn was given a Christian interpretation and became both a celestial event and an image of the Annunciation and Conception within the earthly body. Christian legend, based on many years of tradition, mixed profane and sacred elements and converted the representations of the unicorn hunt into a remarkable documentation of the often conflicting folk poetry, sincere beliefs, and intellectualism of the later Middle Ages.

Detail Of Unicorn Hunt From Altar Frontal, Gelnhausen, Germany - Late 15th Century

 

In the beginning The Son of God is not ready to become mortal and suffer as a man, as is required of him. He has to be compelled to do so. Christ, as the unicorn, is chased by the hunter; first by God the Father, and then by Gabriel, at God's command. The object of the hunt is not to slay the unicorn, but to drive the Son of God into the Virgin's bosom.

As this spiritual chase progresses, the Virgin retreats to a garden or some other secluded place—in some images it's a bower, a bed of rosebushes, a garland, or a hedge. (This is the "garden enclosed" mentioned in the Song of Solomon which harbors the mother of God.) According to the Old Testament, this garden not only offers her protection from the world, but also signifies her bosom in which she carries and shelters the Christ child. Then the hunter, the Archangel Gabriel, appears in the vestments of a deacon with a spear and a hunting horn, leading his pack of hounds on a leash. The Virgin sits quietly in the garden. her hair unbound as a symbol of her virginity. In her lap she shelters the hunted unicorn. Gabriel the Hunter raises his spear but does not drive it home. He then raises his horn to his lips and sounds a note. Annunciation and Conception are completed. Frequently God the Father is depicted looking down at the scene in benediction. In others, the Christ child, carrying a cross, is shown descending from God on a beam of light to his mother, signifying his presence in both his mortal and spiritual forms. In some portrayals, the Christ child rides towards his mother on the back of the unicorn.

This Christian mystic unicorn hunt mingles with pagan traditions, with the role of the "Wild Huntsman" who thunders through the fall nights over hill and dale, forest and fell, being played by God the Father or the Archangel Gabriel. In more recent times, the Wild Hunt has been known in some Westphalian localities, as the "angelic steeplechase." In the Midland shire of Stafford in England it is known as "Gabriel's Hounds."

It is fairly evident how the unicorn was transmogrified to suit a religious end. In perhaps its earliest identity—the Karkadann of Persia, Arabia and India—the unicorn was pictured as extremely dangerous, so ferocious it attacked and killed elephants. Then, shortly after the advent of the Christian era, the texts of the Physiologus were printed. While the unicorn was still described as an animal possessing great strength, it now had a fatal flaw, a tragic vulnerability; it could be unsuspectingly drawn to a beautiful woman (preferably a virgin), easily distracted and captured or killed. Over time the Virgin Mary was substituted for the maiden and Christ because allegorically identified with the unicorn and its horn. Thus, the unicorn finally became "useful" and an animal which could be used the way God had intended—for the moral and spiritual instruction of mankind.