Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Tale of Saint Christopher

(This story, although based on extensive research, is written by me. It is also very likely true.)

A long time ago, even to the time of ancient Egypt, there was a race of demon creatures called the Cynocephaly. I know it looks a bit hard to pronounce, but if you read it slowly and carefully, it will get easier the more you try. The Cynocephaly was a race of creatures who had the body of a man and the head of a dog. They are more often referred to by the description of "dog-headed men."

Among the ones of Egypt was the famous Anubis who, through his career, was recognized as the god of death and then later the god of the mysteries of embalming. He had a son named Wepwawet who was an Egyptian war deity. Wepwawet may also have gone by the title "Big Bad Wolf," but that is an entirely different story. In fact, we need to get away from ancient Egypt.

Let's move ahead thousands of years. We are now at some period before the year 251 AD. The place is Canaan and it is filled with demons of many types. The Cynocephaly was simply one of them. One particular Cynocephaly was known by the name of Christopher and has been recorded to be 5 cubits tall. How tall was is 5 cubits? By today's standards, Christopher was 7.5 feet or 2.3 meters tall. He was also known to have a fearsome face which is understandable when you combine such tallness with the head of a canine.

Now Christopher had a very important job. He served the king of Canaan himself and was very loyal. But one day, Christopher had a funny idea. He became a little obsessive of this idea and just had to do something about it. Christopher had decided that he wanted to leave the king and serve "the greatest king there was." But he did not know who this king was and where he might find him. And so he went to the king of Canaan to ask him who this person might be. The king said, "Of course, that would be me. I am the greatest. Therefore you need not leave."

"It must be true," said Christopher. "I am already where I need to be."

But there came a time when Christopher, while working on something, heard someone talking about the Devil. He did not know who this Devil was, so he went before the king and asked about him. The king suddenly became very nervous and crossed himself at the mere mentioning of this entity. When Christopher saw this, he thought, "The king seems to fear the Devil. And if he does indeed fear him, then the Devil must be a greater king than he. Therefore I must go out and serve the Devil." And so Christopher left the king of Canaan to seek out the Devil.

It came to pass that Christopher ran across a band of marauders. The leader of these marauders claimed that he was the Devil. Christopher acknowledged this and so chose to join him in servitude. This lasted for a while, but there came a day when the band was to pass by a cross that had been placed by the wayside. Upon seeing this cross, the Devil went out of his way to avoid it. At once Christopher realized that the Devil feared the cross, and because of this, he could not be greater than what the cross represented.

"What does that cross represent?" he asked.

"Christ," replied the Devil. "I'll have nothing to do with it. Come around like I am doing."

"No," replied the dog-headed man with the shake of his head. "I am going to find Christ and serve him, for he seems to be a greater king than you." And so he left to do as he said.

The Cynocephaly searched for Christ but could not find him. And this was very troublesome for he wanted dearly to serve the greatest king of all. One day he happened upon a hermit, who seemed to know something of Christ, and asked the man, "If I cannot find Christ, what then may I do to serve him?"

The hermit answered, "If you wish to be a good servant to Christ, then you might try much fasting and prayer. It has always done good by me."

Christopher did not like this. He replied, "I do not see how fasting and prayer does anything for a great king. Is there anything of more substance that I can do to serve Christ?"

The hermit then suggested, "There is a dangerous river near here where many travelers are dying while attempting its crossing. Because of your great size and strength, you could carry them upon your shoulders from one side to the other."

"And in what way would that be serving Christ?" asked Christopher. "It sounds as if I am only serving lesser people."

The hermit explained, "I give you my assurances that if you serve these people, you will also be serving Christ."

"I do not think so," said Christopher. "But I do not see any other way. I will do this." So the tall Cynocephaly went to the river and began his service in carrying the travelers over one-by-one. The river was once a place where many would perish, but that was no longer true. Christopher continued in this way for many years. Even so he never truly thought he was serving Christ, but what could he do? It seemed to him that Christ was unreachable and that he could only live to serve these lesser people. Nevertheless he continued in good faith.

There came a day when a small child, a boy, asked to be brought across the river. The dog-headed man, of course, agreed. The child would easily have been killed in the deep river. But as he attempted to carry the child across, it felt as if the boy was as heavy as lead. As strong as Christopher was, he was forced to struggle fiercely to remain above water.

When Christopher finally made it to the other side, he fell to the ground while taking care not to hurt the child. Panting and wheezing, he told the boy, "Because of you, I have been put into the greatest danger. Having you on my shoulders was as if I was bearing the whole world."

The child smiled pleasantly and placed a hand upon Christopher's dog-headed face. The boy then said, "You had upon your shoulders not only the world but Him who made it. I am the Christ and you have been doing my work. In this way you have served me." The boy then vanished right in front of Christopher. It was at this moment that a Cynocephaly, a dog-headed man, a demon had chosen to serve Christ for the rest of his days.

The ending of this story is a sad one, but I will continue so that you will know its outcome.

Some time after, Christopher traveled to Lycia where Christians were being persecuted and martyred. He did his best to give them comfort during this time, but ultimately he was brought before the king to give sacrifice to a pagan god. Christopher said to the king, "I cannot do it, for I am a servant of Christ. He is the greatest king of all, and this god you speak of cannot be greater than He."

"I will give you riches," said the king. "You will be as if a king also. All you must do is give a simple sacrifice to this god."

"I will not do it," said Christopher simply.

"You will change your mind," said the king. The king sent beautiful women to tempt Christopher, for he knew something of the Cynocephaly and how they had a love of beautiful women. And this was very true. However, Christopher did not fall into temptation. In fact, Christopher converted these women into servants of Christ like himself!

The king, who saw that many citizens of his land were also becoming Christian converts to this dog-headed man, decided that Christopher must simply be killed. He sent out a number of men to slay Christopher, but they ended up converts as well. Unfortunately there was one soldier who was more stubborn than the others. He would not listen to what Christopher had to say. The soldier killed Christopher and he did so in the year of 251. Christopher has since been known as Saint Christopher and a protector of travelers.

As time has passed by, the legend has changed Saint Christopher to have the head of a man instead of a dog. And they say he was not a demon. Some say that the confusion came from him being a Canaanite which sounds similar to canine. But that is a very silly excuse that simply makes little sense. We know that Canaan was a land of many demons, and where demons are often inclined to serve the Devil, there was but one that we know who served Christ. Christ saw this, and that one demon was ultimately saved.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you like it? Did you hate it? Either way, you can write out a comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Thank you!