Meaning & Analysis
To seek refuge or protection, originating from the historical practice of taking sanctuary in a church. The phrase was also used in the game of 'Tables' (backgammon) to describe moving one's pieces to a safe, protected position on the board.
Insights
Seeking a Safe Haven
The phrase metaphorically represents any act of seeking a safe haven from danger, conflict, or distress. It signifies finding a place or state of security where one is protected from external threats.
Strategic Retreat
In a strategic sense, it symbolizes a calculated retreat or defensive maneuver to avoid loss or harm. Rather than a panicked flight, it implies a deliberate choice to protect one's assets, position, or well-being.
Achieving Invulnerability
The proverb can also imply reaching a state of invulnerability or final security where one is no longer exposed to risk. It is the successful conclusion of a process of securing oneself from all potential 'blots' or attacks.
Historical Right of Sanctuary
The proverb is deeply rooted in the historical European legal tradition of ecclesiastical sanctuary, where churches dedicated to 'Saint Savior' (Christ) offered refuge to fugitives from secular law. This practice provided a powerful real-world basis for the metaphor of seeking safety.
Games as Strategic Metaphor
The explicit link to the game of 'Tables' (a precursor to backgammon) illustrates how concepts of risk and safety were embedded in leisure. The game becomes a microcosm for life's strategic decisions, where a defensive move to 'save' one's pieces is analogous to seeking real-world protection.
Psychology of Self-Preservation
The proverb reflects a fundamental psychological drive for security in the face of threat. It frames retreat not as cowardice, but as a prudent, strategic action to preserve oneself from harm, highlighting the instinct for self-preservation.
Rhetorical Devices
Idiom
The phrase functions as a powerful idiom, using a specific, tangible place (a church) to represent the abstract concept of safety and protection.
Historical Allusion
It relies on a historical allusion to the medieval and early modern legal right of sanctuary, drawing its meaning from this shared cultural and religious knowledge.
Metaphor
The act of physically 'going to Saint Savior's' serves as a metaphor for the broader concept of taking strategic action to ensure one's safety and security in any context.
Transcription
Quotations
To go to Saint Salvaro, viz. to take Sanctuary, to get Protection; the English say at Tables, when they intend to save their men, and make no blots, To go to Saint Saviours.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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