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Someo commune (Ticino canton, Switzerland)

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Someo

by Pascal Gross

Azure a deer trippant argent with a Latin cross issuant from the head between the antlers and in chief sinister a moon figuree increment or.
Željko Heimer, 19 January 2004

The deer and the crescent on the flag of Someo are the attributes of St. Eustatius and St. Placid, Patron Saints of the church.
Pascal Gross, 19 January 2004

St. Eustace probably never existed - there is a historically worthless legend of a Roman general called Placidas under Trajan, who was converted through seeing the stag with the crucifix, (also featuring in the legend of St. Hubert), changed his name and that of his wife and children, and later on suffered with them martyrdom through being roasted to death in a brazen bull after refursing to sacrifice.
St. Placid (6th century) is an exemplary saint: he was killed by Saracen pirates 100 years before the Saracenes arrived in the Mediterranean. This probably explains the crescent.
However the most likely saint is Placid (died c. 650), a wealthy landowner in Switzerland, who donated a tract of land to St. Sigisbert to found the Benedictine abbey of Dissentis about 614, and became a monk there. This Placid was murdered several years later for defending the rights of the abbey.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (1997), John J. Delaney's Dictionary of Saints (1980)

The last Placid may have been the original patron saint, but the Placidas/Eustace story is much more juicy...
Jarig Bakker, 19 January 2004

A head-bone and various other relics of St Eustace/Placidas were restored to the Swiss cathedral from which they were looted by Napoleon.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (1997)
James Dignan, 19 January 2004