ST VINCENT vs ST ANASTASIUS

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” – Galileo Galilei

Mullein, Verbascum nigrum, is today’s birthday plant. It symbolises nature and in the language of flowers says: “Take courage”, its bright yellow flowers striking a confident note. Astrologically, it is a saturnine plant. In olden times the plant was stripped of its leaves, the stem dried and dipped in tallow grease to make candles. Hence the alternative name for the plant “candelwick”, “hedge taper” and “Jupiter’s staff”.

Those of the Catholic faith celebrate St Vincent of Saragossa’s Feast Day today. St. Vincent, the protomartyr of Spain, was a deacon of the 3rd century. Together with his Bishop, Valerius of Saragossa, he was apprehended during a persecution of Dacian the governor of Spain. Valerius was banished but Vincent was subjected to fierce tortures before ultimately dying from his wounds. According to details of his death (which seem to have been considerably embellished later on), his flesh was pierced with iron hooks, he was bound upon a red-hot gridiron and roasted, and he was cast into a prison and laid on a floor strewn with broken pottery. But through it all his constancy remained unmoved (leading to his jailer's conversion) and he survived until his friends were allowed to see him and prepare a bed for on which he died. The saint's fame spread rapidly throughout Gaul and Africa. He is the patron saint of winegrowers, winemakers, vinegar makers and schoolgirls!

If the weather is good (in the Northern hemisphere) on this day, a good wine harvest is said to be assured:
Remember on St Vincent’s Day
If that the sun his beams display
For ‘tis a token, bright and clear
Of prosperous weather all the year.

Fittingly, the word of the day is: “Oenophile”

oenophile |ˈēnəˌfīl| noun
A connoisseur of wines.
DERIVATIVES
Oenophilia /ˌɛnoʊˈfɪliə/; oenophilist |ēˈnäfəlist| nouns
ORIGIN
Oenophilia originally from Greek, is the love (philia) of wine (oinos). An oenophile is a lover of wine.

The Greek Orthodox faith celebrates St Anastasius I (ca 430-518 AD) who was a Roman emperor of the East (491-518), successor of Zeno, whose widow he married. He made peace with Persia, maintained friendly relations with Theodoric the Great and made Clovis I an ally. He protected Constantinople from attack by building a new city wall and he aided the poor in his kingdom by revising the tax system. He abolished gladiatorial contests, but his monophysite tendencies stirred religious unrest in the empire. St Anastasius is the patron saint of goldsmiths.