Hey Deacon

This week I am away on pilgrimage with nearly 40 other Catholics visiting churches, historical sites, and a few pubs in Ireland and Scotland. In doing my pre-trip research, I discovered that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, and other interesting facts. And yes, the unicorn does appear in the Bible.

The unicorn: a mythical animal known since antiquity as a beast with a single spiraled white horn projecting from its forehead. A creature commonplace in folktales, legends, and children’s stories, so why does the Holy Bible mention unicorns a half dozen times?

The answer is a bit complicated. But before I get to the explanation, let’s have a little fun with a few fascinating facts about unicorns:

Being that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, you can find two of them on the Scottish coat of arms. You can also find a unicorn alongside a lion in the British coat of arms. This represents the union between Scotland and England.

Unicorns pop up in mythology and legends from countries and cultures all over the world. Often, they vary a little bit on the exact characteristics of a unicorn, but one thing they all seem to agree on is that unicorns are very strong and very difficult to catch.

The name "unicorn" originates from the Latin words "uni", meaning "one", and "cornu", meaning "horn". This means that unicorn literally means "one horn".

Hundreds of years ago it was widely believed that if you drank from a real unicorn horn, you'd be protected from poison. Because of this, it was common for members of the royal family to pay large sums of money for what they thought were unicorn horns. It turns out that they were actually rhino horns.

Many legends and stories say that unicorns can fly, even though they don't have wings. A Pegasus is another mythical animal which looks very similar to a unicorn, but with wings.

Baby unicorns are called foals, just like baby horses. They are also called sparkles and are born without their horns. Instead, they have a hard knot where their magnificent horn will eventually grow.

A pack of unicorns is called a ‘Blessing’ which is the collective noun for a group of unicorns. The name ‘blessing’ comes from the fact that unicorns are thought to be impossible to catch and can only be seen by those who are virtuous. Therefore, seeing a unicorn would be a blessing!

Unicorns are mentioned a few times in older translations of the bible, such as, King James and Douay-Rheims. For example, in Numbers 23:22 God's strength is linked to that of the unicorn: "God brought them out of Egypt, he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn". And in Psalm 92(91):10 “But my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn: and my old age in plentiful mercy.” Really? Unicorn?

The root of the answer is that the translation of the word “unicorn” has changed drastically over time. When the Douay–Rheims Bible was translated over 400 years ago from the Latin Vulgate into English, there are five separate Latin words that were translated into unicorn: Rinoceros, Rinocerotis, Rinocerota, Unicornium, and Unicornis. Any bull-like animal with a single horn was labeled a unicorn, not a mythical creature -- a quirk of the translation. Today’s translation uses ‘wild oxen’ or something similar.

I close with a quote from St. Basil who makes a connection between the unicorn and the glory of Jesus Christ. He said, “‘My protector and the horn of my salvation; Christ is the power of God; therefore, he is called the Unicorn on the ground that he has one horn, that is, one common power with the Father.”

Author Bio:
Deacon Dan Vaughn