The Dog
Faithfulness; the dog that fed St Roch in the forest, and the dog with a torch that foretold St Dominic’s preaching.
St Roch. Roch caught the plague while nursing its victims in Italy and went into the forest to die alone. A dog from a nearby household brought him a loaf of bread every day and licked his sores until he recovered. Statues show the dog at his side, often with the bread in its mouth, and Roch lifting his robe to show the sore on his leg, as ours does.
St Dominic. Before he was born, his mother dreamed of a dog carrying a lighted torch in its mouth, setting the world on fire. His preaching friars came to be punned on in Latin as Domini canes, “the hounds of the Lord”. He is shown with the dog and its torch at his feet, often beside a globe.
Faithfulness. A small dog at the feet of a wife on a medieval tomb stands for faithfulness.
Where you’ll see it
Creatures of heaven and earth
All symbols →
A statue with the dog?
Every statue is made from scratch in our studio in Mangalore.