File:St. Martha and the dragon.jpg

Summary

English: St. Martha and the dragon - at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (Var, France). A legendary monster, the Tarasque, is said to have lived near Tarascon, France at the beginning of the 1st century. It was purportedly tamed by Martha in 48 AD and killed by the townspeople.

Date ca. 1430
Author André Abellon

Legend reported among others by the Golden Legend has it that the creature inhabited the area of Nerluc in Provence, France, and devastated the landscape far and wide. The Tarasque was a sort of dragon with six short legs like a bear's, an ox-like body covered with a turtle shell, and a scaly tail that ended in a scorpion's sting. It had a lion's head.

The Tarasque was said to have come from Galatia which was the home of the legendary Onachus, a scaly, bison-like beast which burned everything it touched. The Tarasque was the offspring of the Onachus and the Leviathan of biblical account; disputably a giant sea serpent.

The king of Nerluc had attacked the Tarasque with knights and catapults to no avail. But Saint Martha found the beast and charmed it with hymns and prayers, and led back the tamed Tarasque to the city. The people, terrified by the monster, attacked it when it drew nigh. The monster offered no resistance and died there. Martha then preached to the people and converted many of them to Christianity. Sorry for what they had done to the tamed monster, the newly-Christianized townspeople changed the town's name to Tarascon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque

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Source:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abellon-Mag2.jpg