To whom is a brewster to pray?
Maybe, it's
St. Arnold of Metz.
Today, 18 July, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast day St. Arnulf of Metz, also known as Arnold, who lived from 580-640 A.D., in the Merovingian kingdom of what is now northern France and the Benelux nations.
While he served as Bishop of Metz, there were several outbreaks of the plague. Arnulf would cajole many of his countrymen and women to drink beer rather than (what was contaminated) water. “From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world,” he admonished them. Many survived because of his holy perspicacity.
During his funeral in the hot summer of July 620 A.D., the pallbearers and a large crowd of mourners were thirsty during their 120-mile long procession of his body from the town of Remiremont to Metz. They passed around one small mug of beer to drink from. Miraculously, it never emptied. The Church now venerates Arnold as a patron saint of brewers.
In deference to Arnold's posthumous feat, I would include beer drinkers as those who should be thankful to him.
Earlier this month, on 8 July, the Church celebrated the feast day of another
St. Arnold, this one of
Soissons (a town now located in Belgium). He is not only a patron saint of brewers, but of hop pickers. A progressive thinker, Arnold encouraged the drinking of beer for health reasons. (The drinking water of his 11th century was only infrequently potable.)
A more universally famous patron saint of brewers is
St. Nicholas of Myra, who lived in the 4th century (in what is now Turkey). Nicholas was the inspiration for the modern-day Santa Claus. His feast day is celebrated on 6 December. (More from Wikipedia:
here.)
Columbanus, an Irish monk of the 7th century, is not considered a patron saint of brewers, but he gets my bid of honor for beery sanctification, based upon his proposed epitaph:
It is my design to die in the brewhouse; let ale be placed to my mouth when expiring, that when the choirs of angels come, they may say, "Be God propitious to this drinker."
For some reason, Columbanus is considered the patron saint of motorcyclists, unusual if only that their conveyance remained un-invented until some twelve-hundred years after his death. The feast day of St. Columbanus is celebrated on 21 November (24 November, in Ireland).
So, to whom is a brewster to pray?
Maybe, it's
Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179), a saint and
Doctor of the Church —one of only a few women out of a small percentage of saints even given that honor. A Benedictine Abbess, in what is now Germany, Hildegard wrote voluminously. One of her writings includes the earliest known reference to brewing with hops: "(Hops) when put in beer, stops putrification and lends longer durability." Hildegard was only granted sainthood by the Catholic Church in 2012, which now celebrates her feast day on 17 September.
Or maybe it's
Gambrinus, King of Flanders (1251-1294), who was reputed to have invented hopped beer. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church doesn't revere him as an actual saint.
There are more saints associated with beer. The 21st-century Maryland-based beer-writing team known as
The Brews Brothers —aka Steve Frank and Arnold Meltzer— wrote an article a few years ago for the
Mid-Atlantic Brewing News on Catholic saints of beer. They entitled it
Saints of Suds (When The Saints Go Malting In).
With their permission, I've re-printed it, in its entirety, below the 'jump.' Hopefully, with the consent of the saints, we pardon them of their pun.
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