#st dunstan

[superprettythingzzzzzzzz]

[frogshunnedshadows]

It's St. Dunstan's feast day!

"St Dunstan, as the story goes, Once pull'd the devil by the nose With red-hot tongs, which made him roar, That he was heard three miles or more."

"Another story relates how Dunstan nailed a horseshoe to the Devil's foot when he was asked to re-shoe the Devil's cloven hoof. This caused the Devil great pain, and Dunstan only agreed to remove the shoe and release the Devil after he promised never to enter a place where a horseshoe is over the door. This is claimed as the origin of the lucky horseshoe."

[seraphica]

St Dunstan in the East

Located near Monument in central London, St Dunstan-in-the-East is a former church (built circa 1100) that was bombed in WWII and subsequently transformed into a public garden.

[itsstreetlove]

Saint Dunstan

Patron saint of bell ringers and blacksmiths.

(c. AD909 – 988)

[aneverydaything]

Day 1515, 16 August 2022

[intotheminus]

London - St Dunstan in the East ruins

Posting a few pics of [relatively] lesser known London places

[maypoleman1]

19th May

St Dunstan’s Day

Source: Saints, Feasts, Family website

Today is St Dunstan’s Day, which commemorates an early Archbishop of Canterbury. Before his conversion to Christianity, Dunstan was rumoured to have been an associate of Satan. This might explain why, after the newly devout Dunstan set himself up as a blacksmith, that the devil visited him at his forge at Mayfield, East Sussex, in the shape of a beautiful young woman in an attempt to divert him from the path of righteousness. However, Dunstan was wise to Satan’s tricks, having caught a glimpse of a cloven hoof peeping from the woman’s skirts, and as the seductress leant in, Dunstan grasped her by the nose with his blacksmith’s tongs. The devil cried out in agony, reverted to his true shape and fled to Tunbridge Wells to douse his throbbing nose in its waters, which explains why to this day, they are tinged with red and smell of sulphur.

Dunstan later received another visit from Satan, asking to have his hooves shod. This time Dunstan drove a nail through the horseshoe and deep into the devil’s foot. Dunstan promised to free Lucifer from his agony only if he promised never to enter a dwelling where a horseshoe was nailed up. Satan agreed which is why horseshoes remain a sign of good luck to this day. A more likely explanation for the charmed nature of the horseshoe is that it resembles the shape of the crescent moon, a very important symbol in pagan religion. Also iron, from which horseshoes are made, was felt to be a defence against the faerie realm.

Anne Boleyn was also executed on this day in 1536 and her ghost appears in many places, including Marvell Hall in Owslebury , the Tower of London and Blickling Hall in Norfolk.

[artemis-lune]

Discovering the abandoned church of St. Dunstan in the East, London (12.20.19)