From your Valentine ~ with honey

Honey has fascinating connections to Valentine’s Day. From Cupid’s bow, dipped in honey to sweeten the sting of love, to St. Valentine, the patron saint of lovers, epilepsy, and fainting!

Also, patron saint of Beekeepers since 496 A.D. The Church assigned patron saints to various professions and trades, and as bees are essential for making delicious medicinal honey and wax for candles used in church services, this was a notable role.

Bees represent community, diligence, and sweetness, which align with St. Valentine’s preached virtues of love and faith. It is a heart breaking story about St. Valentine, who was possibly a Roman priest or bishop who lived during the 3rd century under Emperor Claudius II.

Claudius had banned marriages for young men, believing that single men made better soldiers. Valentine ignored this order and continued to perform secret weddings for Christian couples.

The phrase “Honeymoon” comes from the tradition of newlyweds drinking honey mead and eating honey for a lunar month to boost fertility and love.

Tragically, St. Valentine was discovered, arrested, and executed, believed to have been on February 14^th, around 269 A.D.

Another story suggests that while in prison, Valentine healed the jailer’s blind daughter and wrote her a farewell note signed … “From your Valentine.”