THE LION AND THE SAINT

Wolfe’s novella dramatizes the life of Saint Gerasimus.

In this brief, fictional work, readers are introduced to a lion—a massive, regal beast who’s raised to rule over (and eat) all other animals and who knows he is not only a lion, but all lions. “I had no words then with which to tell my story—they came later—and time without words rolls along like the great river,” the lion reflects, “the Now always present, always moving.” This serenity remains when the lion encounters a cringing, deferential baboon named Astennu, a former temple monkey who offers to be both scribe and courtier to the lion (in exchange for not getting eaten). The two form a working partnership. The lion then gets a painful spur in his paw and approaches a curiously unafraid human. This man not only draws the spur from the lion’s paw, but also provokes a surprising internal reaction in the beast, who notices immediately that this man is not like other humans. “There is no stench, no sense of wrongness,” he sees. “Being next to him is akin to drinking from a cold mountain spring shaded by thick, breathing trees.” The man—who identifies himself as the fifth-century Saint Gerasimus—introduces the lion to the concept of individuality: He is not just all lions, but rather one specific lion, whom he christens Jordanes. In this simple, clearly written sequence of chapters told from different points of view, Wolfe introduces readers to the most famous bit of folklore associated with Saint Gerasimus, who’s known for befriending a lion and a baboon. Wolfe subtly weaves into a brightly told narrative some deeper philosophical insights grouped around the concept of faith and selfhood. When Jordanes, meeting Gerasimus, abruptly realizes “Everything I know must change,” he stands in for many of Wolfe’s readers who will have had the experience of feeling their lives change after contact with the holy. As Gerasimus tells astonished onlookers who seek to approach these wild animals that now accompany him everywhere, “the Lord has set them before us as treasures of His wisdom.”

A warmly written parable on Saint Gerasimus and the nature of faith.