Taming the dragon

Yesterday the church service was to honour the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in the Presbyterian church I suppose I don't need to note that St Andrews did ordain the first woman . . Anyway as part of the service we had the story of Martha and Mary.

Apparently there are legends about what happened to Martha and Mary after the dispersion of the first Christians. One legend has it that Martha and Mary ended up in Tarascon a village what is now France. The citizens of the village were being terrorised by a Tarasque or dragon that kept eating the people of the village. When Martha arrived she went out to meet the dragon - tamed it and used her girdle to take it back to the village. Depending onwhich legend ending you take either the villagers the attacked the dragon and slayed it or Martha kept the dragon and used it to supply the village with hot water and cooking heat.