Bee Legends
There are many legends from many countries associated with bees - far too many to be covered in any detail. The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, is rich in quotations.
“A land flowing with milk and honey ... “ (Exodus)
“Go to the ant thou sluggard. Go to the bee, and learn how diligent she is. What a noble work she produces, whose labour kings and private men use for their health! She is desired and honoured by all, and though weak in strength, yet since she values wisdom she prevails.” (Proverbs)
Samson’s wedding feast riddle concerned bees that had made a nest in the rib-cage of a lion: “ ... out of the strong came forth sweetness.” A well-known brand of golden syrup has an illustration of this on the container!
Christian tradition contains numerous legends involving bees. According to legend, the bee was blessed on leaving the Garden of Eden with the title “the handmaid of the Lord”. In another story, Christ made bees and the Devil, trying to compete, made wasps. In a French legend, the drops of water falling from the hands of Christ, washing in the River Jordan, became bees - Christ ordered them to stay and work for mankind. A Breton legend tells of the tears of the crucified Christ turning into bees and flying away to bring sweetness into the world. A Polish story tells how Jesus took the maggots from a wound in St. Paul’s head, put them in a tree and they became bees.
The Christian Church has strong links with bees. Monasteries kept bees to provide honey for sweetening and mead made from fermented honey - wax was in great demand for candles. Honey and mead were used to make herbal remedies more palatable! Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey is well-known today.
The saints are well represented. St. Gregory is responsible for opening the flowers on 12th March - a few weeks later on 21st March, St. Benedict summons the bees to search for nectar. St. Ambrose, 4th Bishop of Milan, is the patron saint of beekeepers. In the Ukraine, the patron saint of beekeepers is St. Sossima, who brought bees from Egypt. According to legend, St. Bartholomew was martyred by being flayed alive and because of this fate he became the patron saint of tanners. In many parts of Britain, the apostle was also patron saint of beekeepers, probably because his feast day, 24th August, coincided with the gathering of the honey crop. Indeed, until the 1950s, the village of Gulval in Cornwall celebrated St. Bartholomew’s Day with a ceremony for Blessing the Mead, while the annual St. Bartholomew’s Fair in London was famous for its honey-coated apples. St. Dominic started beekeeping in Wales and, when he returned to Ireland, gave his hives to St. David - the bees followed him to Ireland! Another Irish saint St. Gobnat changed a colony of bees into an army to drive away a local marauding chieftain.
Bees were believed to be the souls of the dead returning to earth or on their way to the next world. This probably led to the widespread custom of “telling the bees” when the owner died. If the bees were not asked to stay with their new master or mistress, it was believed that they would die or abscond.
“Childhood, people say, is the time when nobody dies. Something went from mine the day I saw Uncle Sam at the hives and heard him say, ‘Bees, your master’s dead. I am your master now’. With that he knocked on each hive, and from within came a stir and commotion. ‘They know’, said my uncle, and we went indoors to send for the relations and find some strips of mourning for the hives.” (Bees are People by Ada Jackson - The Countryman - Autumn 1967)
© Brian P. Dennis – 2005