Holy Werewolf!

There’s an old folktale about a priest and his encounter with a werewolf. In Ragusa, Italy there was once a church called Santa Maria della Scala (St. Mary of the Stars) and it was supposedly at this church were the battle of the wolf and priest took place.

The holy man was crossing the piazza late one night when from the shadows and beast jumped out at him. The creature bared its fangs and growled ferociously. In the moonlight the priest could see that it was shaped somewhat like a man, but that it had all the attributes of a wolf, including a long muzzle.

The frightened man offered up a prayer, but it didn’t work, instead it made the werewolf even angrier. With the wolf ready to attack the priest ran to the church for safety but the werewolf came after him, obviously not affected at all by the holy place.

At the altar, the priest held up a large cross towards the werewolf, but the holy relic did absolutely nothing to the beast. The wolf, not fazed by the holy items surrounding him continued to walk menacingly towards the priest. This time the priest acted and used the cross as a weapon, attacking the oncoming werewolf. He brutally hit the creature on the forearm, and from the wound oozed black sticky blood.

The injured werewolf yelped like a dog and ran for the door, but I’m afraid he didn’t make it. Before he even reached the doors he began to transform back into human form and eventually collapsed on the church steps. This is when the priest ran after him to offer help. At this point the werewolf had completely reverted back to human form and when the priest laid eyes of the face of his would-be attacker he saw that the werewolf was in fact a fellow cleric.

The wolf man quickly revealed that he had suffered the curse since childhood, that it was the rays of the moon turned him into a beast. He admitted that while in his savage form he often attacked and even killed those unlucky enough to cross his path. It wasn’t until the loss of blood was he able to break the curse.

I find it interesting that this is an old folktale and the holy relics and prayer didn’t work, when usually in these old tales they do. Instead it’s violence that cures the werewolf. The loss of blood is a common cure for werewolves in folklore; it was even the cure in this story.

– Moonlight

By moonlight

One of the writers for werewolves.com, as well as vampires.com.

1 comment

  1. Curious… Why the Blood Loss is referent cure to Werewolf Curse…

    I think that too comes from the Middle Ages, where they used as a treatment for any disease the use of leeches in the body of the people, to “remove the impurities from the body.” Of course it was a method that constantly killing people and not help in any way the disease, but may have something to do with the idea of curing lycanthropy

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