Saint Natalis of Ulster (also called Naile) died in 564 A.D. He was a monk, abbot of monasteries in northern Ireland and disciple of Saint Columba. According to legend, Saint Natalis placed a curse on a clan which transformed their members into werewolves. Here is the tale:
The Tale
An unnamed priest was traveling from Ulster to Meath on an important mission with his assistant, a young boy. The two stopped for the night near woods at the edge of the See of Ossory. As they lay down to sleep, the priest hears a human voice calling from the nearby forest. He gets up and looking out into the darkness he sees a giant wolf draw near. The priest and boy draw back in horror, but the wolf speaks in a human voice and tells them not to be afraid.
“We are natives of Ossory,” the wolf said, “From there every seven years, because of the imprecation of a certain saint, namely the Abbot Natalis, two persons, a man and a woman, are compelled to go into exile not only from their territory but also from their bodily shape.”
“But how came you by this fearsome form?” the priest asked in wonder. “And why must you wear it for seven years?”
“I am a member of Clan Allta, a tribe of this region,” the wolf answered, “and like yourself, Father, we are believers in Jesus Christ and in the power of His salvation. However, in times long past, we were cursed for some ancient sin by the blessed Abbot Natalis.”
The priest had heard of Natalis, who had come to Ireland shortly after the Blessed Patrick to bring the gospel to a dark and pagan land. He had even read some of the holy man’s works. From what he had read, he had always imagined Natalis to be exceedingly severe and inflexible in his teachings and one who would brook no deviation from his own interpretations of God’s law.
“The sin which my clan committed has long been forgotten,” said the wolf, “but the curse is still in force. Every seven years two of us must lose our mortal form to wear the skin of a wild wolf and must live in the deep woods away from our clan. When the seven years are up we shed our animal form and regain our human shape and two others must take our place. It is a terrible burden, Father, and one that will never be lifted, for Natalis is long dead.”
The wolf asks the priest to accompany him into the woods to give the last rites to his mate, the female wolf. The priest is filled with terror that the wolf will kill him, but follows the wolf into the woods. He gives the dying wolf communion and blesses her. The male wolf returns the priest to his campfire and bids him farewell, loping back into the forest. The priest calls out after him saying he would return. On his way back to Ulster, the priest stopped in the woods of Ossory and searched for the werewolves but did not find any trace of them.
Saint Patrick or Saint Natalis?
Saint Patrick and Saint Natalis are sometimes confused in the werewolf story. In one account, “it is told when the holy Patricius (St. Patrick) preached Christianity in that country, there was one clan which opposed him more stubbornly than any other people in the land; and these people strove to do insult in many ways both to God and to the holy man. And when he was preaching the faith to them as to others and came to confer with them when they held their assemblies, they adopted the plan of howling at him like wolves.”
Staint Patrick responded by praying to God to punish the clan, resulting in them suffering “a fitting and severe through marvelous punishment, for it is told that all the members of the clan are changed into wolves for a period and roam through the woods feeding upon the same food as wolves; but they are worse than wolves, for in all their wiles they have the wit of men, though they are as eager to devour men as to destroy other creatures.”
Origins of the Tale
The story of Saint Natalis and the Werewolves first appeared in Gerald of Wales’ Topographia Hibernica, written in 1185 A.D. The incident with the werewolves and the priest was supposed to have occurred two years before Gerald’s visit to Ireland with King John in 1175 A.D. While he was in Ossory, Gerald was approached by two priests sent by the bishop to ask him his view on this “serious matter.” Gerald met with the Bishop of Ossory and set down the story in writing, which was sent to Pope Urban III. It became one of the first werewolf stories ever recorded. A Norse work written about 1250 A.D., Konungs Skuggsja (King’s Mirror), describes Irish werewolves as being humans who were cursed as a divine punishment for wickedness. The tale is clearly based on the Ossory werewolves.
