April 13 is the Feast Day of St. Brega, patron of owls, not to be confused with Saint Holox, patron of very angry owls. When St. Offren fled her enemies (the first time) she encountered Brega in the wilds. Brega spoke no human tongue, but only the language of owls. She led Offren through the woods in the dark, guided by owl-light, and so escaped.
A bishop later chastised Offren for having not brought Brega into a convent to be baptized. Offren countered that those “innocents of the wilderness” who were brought back into human habitation rarely thrived. “I do not know if she was happy among the owls,” said Offren, “but I could have offered her only death and the knowledge of good and evil. Eve made such a choice once. I have chosen differently.” For this, which was ultimately taken to be a refutation of the doctrine of mandatory original sin, Offren was excommunicated (the second time.)
Icons of St. Brega usually show a half-human, half-owl figure, or occasionally a flying owl with a human face. Hagiographers today, based on the admittedly wild descriptions of later accounts, and the rather more sedate writings of St. Offren, suspect that she was not actually a feral child, as implied by the bishop, but most likely a hermit and a falconer, perhaps under a vow of silence.
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A drawing of St. Brega, by Madison Stuart