Neomaye of Poitou

Neomaye of Poitou (also called Neomadia or Noemoise) is the patroness of shepherdesses, a virgin of a noble family of Poitou, who lived in the 5th century. She is said to have been born near Loudun. According to the legend, she was a young shepherdess whom young men pursued with their attentions; she prayed to God to make her ugly, to drive off the importunate, and one of her legs was changed into a goose's foot. She withdrew to the banks of the Sèvre, as a simple shepherdess, far from her own. When she planted her shepherd's staff in the ground at Fontcreuse, a spring gushed forth. According to another legend, pursued by a neighbouring lord and praying to keep her chastity, she received a goose's foot and the suitor fled.

Under the name Noemoise she was honoured at Sambin in Loir-⁠et-⁠Cher. The goose's foot, attributed to several saints, may refer to leprosy, the mark of lepers in the Middle Ages. The saint sits in the church of Saint-⁠Georges at Louestault, where on the third Sunday after Easter the feast of the kid is held. She is commemorated on 14 January, in the Western calendar (new style), on the same day as Saint Hilary. A saint venerated locally, from the time of the undivided Church.