So while some people gush over the rediculous commercial farce that today has become, most forget that St Valentine is OUR Saint. Patron Saint of Beekeepers (and fainting) http://www.catholicmatch.com/blog/2012/ ... -fainting/
a snip.. bee keepers, the plague, epilepsy and fainting tecumseh: odd combination huh? kind of cool but still odd.
I LOVE fascinating tidbits like this! I had no idea. Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding. Beekeepers... OK. Beekeepers with swollen welts and propolis stains on skin... plague? Beekeepers trying to get rogue bee out of suit... epilepsy? Beekeepers in full suits on hot summer day... fainting? (Note: Comments above are not intended in any way to be derogatory to the diseases mentioned or their seriousness in reality.)
I had always thought that the Patron Saint of Beekeepers was Saint Ambrose! http://www.saintambrose.com/Saint_Ambrose.htm Where might we get clarification on this!?
I have always been taught that the idea that St Valentine is the patron saint of beekeeping is erroneous. Rather, it is St Ambrose http://beelore.com/2008/03/25/st-ambros ... eekeepers/. My St Joseph Daily Missal says nothing about St. Valentine being the patron saint of either bees or fainting, but does acknowledge St. Ambrose! Hmmmm. . . Further research seems to be in order.
St. Ambrose is certainly also listed in many places My original link is a Catholic site listing all the saints, and it too acknowledges St. Ambrose, but also says that there are MANY St. Valentines It'll take more than one St to look after me anyway
So, I have asked this question of a friend of mine who happens to be a Benedictine monk at a nearby Abbey. His response: "Yes, I guess it's true: St. Valentine is patron of beekeepers, although Sts. Gobnait, Deborah, Abigail and Ambrose are also patrons of beekeepers." It looks like we have PLENTY of patron saints - and I would suggest that we need every one of them when it comes to keeping our bees alive!! :beg:
After a quick search, I found www.saints.sqpn.com. This lists not only St. Ambrose, but St. Bernard as patron saints of beekeepers and bees.
history can be confusing???? perhaps some of the various saint were from different orders??? different part of the globe??? my own modern day saint of bee keeping is Brother Adam... I would have like to have had the opportunity to have met that man.
Brother Adam is the monk who developed the Buckfast bee. He worked as a monk in the apiary at Buckfast apiary in England. Literally scoured the world over for the best kind of bee. Was around long enough that he could recall the introduction of the trachael mite in England... sometimes called the Isle of Wright Disease... and made some observation about the incident decades later.
