Saint Agatha and the Tuesday Woman

In a very interesting paper on the cult of Saint Agatha, Violet Alford (1941) discusses the transformation of Saint Agatha 'who once perhaps was Ceres' into Santo Gato, a cat saint. In the Toulouse region this Cat Saint shows a peculiarly vindictive spirit toward women who disobey her

well-known rules. The following is a typical story from the Pyrenees. On St. Agatha's Eve a woman stayed up late to spin. At nine o'clock someone knocked at the door. A strange woman came in. She announced 'I will spin too', was given wool and set to work. She span at a furious speed four times faster than her hostess who took fright and ran out to tell the neighbour. The neighbour advised her to go back and cry out as she entered 'The cemetery is on fire'. The strange spinner ran out immediately, crying 'To my little home.' But she came back again to say that the woman of the house had only just saved herself from death, as it was her own shroud she was spinning. (Quoted by V. Alford from J. Vezian.) In another version a woman announced that she was going to begin washing but her neighbour reminded her it was Saint Agatha's day and that work was forbidden. The woman impatiently cried 'Santo Gato gatara e la ruscado se fara' ('Saint cat shall kitten and I shall have my wash'). But immediately a sort of cat appeared in the chimney corner. This creature cried 'Empty it, empty it' every time the cauldron had to be emptied. The terrified woman ran to her wise neighbour. She was told to go to the window when it was time to empty the last cauldron and to cry out the cemetery is on fire. The cat howled 'To my little home' and fled. The cat was the Saint risen from her gave to punish the woman for not observing her day. (Alford, 178–9.) In order to find the closest parallels to these narratives we have to jump far from the Pyrenees to Transylvania. Rumanian women will not work on Tuesday evening and in some villages the men will also abstain from work. Washing and ever