Legend has it that Saint Eulàlia herded geese in Sarrià and that at the age of 13 she was sentenced to 13 martyrdoms for refusing to renounce the Christian faith during the mandate of the Roman governor Dacian. That is why there are thirteen birds, one for each martyrdom, that are guarded by the Barcelona Cathedral and the people of Barcelona in memory of the city’s co-patron. Some emblematic white birds, especially cared for, pampered and protected, and with a high religious and cultural component that were in danger on Thursday afternoon.
This chronicler will not be the one who happily raises an accusing finger against a dog. But there lives in the Gòtic a neighbor with a dog who walks without a leash through the cobbled streets of the neighborhood and every time she heads down Calle del Bisbe, the animal accelerates, enters the cloister of the Cathedral and sneaks into the sacred precinct of the twelve geese. And that is exactly what happened again on Thursday around seven in the afternoon.
The dog, to which none of the many people consulted yesterday managed to give a breed or name, managed to access the birds, causing such a commotion, bustle and shouting that he even approached a person in charge of the temple, visibly angry.
For everyone’s benefit, the dog did not manage to reach the neck of any goose. Maybe his intention was to scare them and chase them away. But at some point he panicked. The first call to 112 from one of the religious of the Cathedral warned that a dog had sneaked into the cloister and was biting the geese of Santa Eulàlia. A patrol from the Ciutat Vella Urban Guard moved quickly to the scene.
The dog chased them, stressed and scared them and entertained themselves for a long time. There was hardly any audience because they were practically closing. Several Cathedral workers went into the courtyard to try to immobilize the animal, but it was impossible. “You don’t know how upset he was. “I’m sure he’s not violent, but he has something about geese that makes him crazy,” one of the witnesses to the incident told this newspaper. In the end, it was the neighbor and person responsible for the animal who accessed the enclosure and managed to remove the animal already attached with its walking leash.
“The problem is that it is not the first time. With me at the door there have been four times that same dog has broken in. In another life he must have hunted geese,” says another worker. The last incursion into the facility was in August. And then the maintenance staff placed a metal net under the barred door that the dog has already discovered that if he pushes with his body, it gives way.
When the Urban Guard patrol arrived, the animal had already been evacuated, the geese were recovering from the shock and showing their anger at the recurrence. The lady will be punished by the municipal ordinance that prohibits dogs, of any breed, from running loose in the city. The bishop also intended to denounce the woman, but he declined after the lady’s commitment to take more care of her.
Yesterday at noon, the thirteen geese of Santa Eulàlia ate their daily menu, oblivious to the organized mess. Good grain and lettuce leaves from the Santa Caterina market with some oranges as a gift. The neighborhood children, from time to time, bring them stale bread, but not much, which is not good for their diet. On the ground there was abundant plumage from the commotion organized the previous day.
Privileged witnesses to the attempted ochicide were those responsible for the cloister store. Between the chapel of Santa Rita and the one that commemorates the religious martyrs of the 1930s, is this beautiful business selling relics and sacred memories. “You can’t imagine what they shout when they fight among themselves. They are very loud and when the dog came in they went crazy,” says an official. In the store a large mural explains the legend of the geese, protagonists of some of the souvenirs sold,
The geese are in the Cathedral for about seven years and when they reach maturity they move to a farm and younger ones enter. Changes have to be in pairs because they are especially territorial and hierarchical animals and it takes them time to accept new ones. Of course, no one wins the pretty ones.
