history - chefs: Patron saints

Saint Anthony of Egypt : Patron saint of butchers

AKA:

Feast: January 17th (Obligatory Memorial)

Born: 251

Died: 356

Canonised: Unknown

Saint Anthony of Egypt was born in Egypt around 250 AD. When his parents died he gave all of his property to the poor and began a life as a hermit.

His life style attracted many disciples and they laboured for the Church. He along with Saint Athanasius of Alexandria gave support to believers during the Persecution of Diocletian and fighting the Arian heresy.

He died in 356 AD at age 105.

He is also the Patron Saint of basket makers, brush makers, domestic animals, grave diggers, and skin diseases.

Saint Fortunat : Patron saint of male cooks/chefs

AKA: Venantius, Honorius, Clementianus, Fortunatus

Feast: 14th December

Born: circa 535, Treviso, Italy

Died: circa 605, Poitiers, Gaul (natural causes)

Canonised: Unknown

Born to a pagan family, he converted to Christianity when still quite young. He grew up in Aquileia, in Italy and studied grammar, rhetoric, and law at Ravenna, Italy. While a student he became nearly blind, but recovered his sight by anointing his eyes with oil from a lamp that burned before the altar of Saint Martin of Tours. In gratitude to Saint Martin, he made a pilgrimage to Tours via the area of modern Germany, taking two years to make the journey from about 565 to 567.

In Tours he became a close friend of the bishop and lived in the Loire Valley for while, then settled near Poitiers. During his travels he often paid for his supper by reciting poetry, singing, or making up rhymes on the spot. From 567 to 587 he counselled a local community of nuns on matters spiritual and financial. He was an advisor and secretary of Queen Radegund, wife of King Clotaire I and eventually became Bishop of Poitiers (circa 600)

A wanderer up to then, when Venantius became a bishop he became a model of temperance and stability, and was known for his love of food and friends and joy. He wrote hymns, essays, funeral elegies, homilies, and metrical lives of the saints including Saint Martin of Tours (which runs to 2,243 hexameter lines), Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Saint Germanus of Paris, Saint Albinus of Angers, Saint Paternus of Avranches, Saint Marcellus of Paris, and Saint Radegund. His poetry and songs often concerned daily life and work and people and politics, and have become a valuable resource for historians of the era.

He is considered the last of the Gaelic Latin poets, and one of the first Christian poets to write works devoted to Mary.

Saint Honore : Patron saint of bakers

AKA: Honoratus; Honortus

Feast: May 16th

Born: Porthieu, Amiens, France

Died: 30 September 653 at Porthieu, Amiens, France; miracles reported at his tomb, especially in 1060 when his body was exhumed

Canonised: Unknown

Saint Honore was the Bishop of Amiens.

Saint Honore is represented by a baker's peel or shovel; bishop with a large Host; bishop with three Hosts on a baker's shovel; loaves; prelate with a hand reaching from heaven to give him bread for the Mass

He is also the Patron Saint of bakers of holy wafers, cake makers, confectioners, candlemakers, chandlers, confectioners, corn chandlers, florists, flour merchants, oil refiners, pastry chefs.

Saint Lawrence : Patron saint of Chef de Rottiseurs

AKA: Lorenzo; Laurentius; Laurence; Laurent

Feast: August 10th it is usually celebrated with cold cuts.

Born: Unknown

Died: 258

Canonised: 1881

Saint Lawrence was a from Huesca, Spain and called to Rome by the pope. He was a third-century archdeacon of Rome and "keeper of the treasures of the church" in a time when Christianity was outlawed. Emperor Valerian delighted in the persecution of Christians and on 6 August 258, by decree of Valerian, Pope Saint Sixtus II and six deacons were beheaded, leaving only Lawrence.

Before his death Sixtus greeted and reassured Lawrence that he was not being left behind; they would be reunited in four days. Lawrence saw this time as an opportunity to disperse the material wealth of the church before the Roman authorities could lay their hands on it.

On 10 August Lawrence was commanded to appear for his execution, and to bring along the treasure with which he had been entrusted. When he arrived, the archdeacon was accompanied by a multitude of Rome's crippled, blind, sick, and indigent; he announced that these were the true treasure of the Church.

Lawrence's care for the poor, the ill, the neglected have led to his patronage of them. His work to save the material wealth of the Church, including its documents, brought librarians and those in related fields to see him as a patron and to ask for his intercession.

His incredible strength and courage when being grilled to death led to his patronage of cooks and those who work in or supply things to the kitchen. He was martyred by being slowly burned on a grid iron; according to Saint Ambrose he apparently told his torturers "Turn me over for I am cooked on this side".

Approximately fifty years after his death the Emperor Constantine had a Basilica built over Saint Lawrence's grave. It was one of the seven major churches in Rome.

His mummified head may be in the Secret Archives of the Vatican Patronage.

The annual Perseid meteor shower, one of the best known of the annually occurring meteor showers, and which occurs near his feast day in August, is sometimes called "The Tears of Saint Lawrence" in Italy.

He is also the patron saint of archives, archivists, armouries, armourers, brewers, butchers, Ceylon, comedians, comediennes, comics, confectioners, cooks, cutlers, deacons, fire, glaziers, laundry workers, librarians, libraries, lumbago, paupers, poor people, restaurateurs, Rome, schoolchildren, seminarians, Sri Lanka, stained glass workers, students, tanners, vine growers, vintners, wine makers.

Saint Luke : Patron saint of butchers

AKA:

Feast: October 18th (Feast)

Born: Unknown in Antioch

Died: Unknown in Greece

Canonised: Unknown

Saint Luke was born to a pagan family and possibly as a slave. He was converted to the faith by a fellow worker of the Apostle Paul. He was by trade a physician and artist, who legend says painted portraits of Jesus and Mary; but never have ever been substantiated. He lived in the city of Antioch.

Based on Saint Paul's preaching he wrote the Gospel according to Luke. Also, he is the author of the Acts of the Apostles which tells of the beginning of the Church up to the time Saint Paul first travelled to Rome.

He and Saint Paul evangelised Greece and Rome. He suffered martyrdom toward the end of the 1st century. Saint Luke is typified by an ox (one of the four living creatures in the vision of Ezekiel), because he begins his Gospel with the history of Zechariah, the priest, offering sacrifice to God, and emphasises the universal priesthood of ChriSaint

He is also the Patron Saint of artists, brewers, doctors, glass-workers, notaries, painters, physicians, sculptors and surgeons.

Saint Macarius : Patron saint of cooks, confectioners and pastry chefs

AKA: Macarius of Alexandria

Feast: 2nd January

Born: 4th century, Alexandria

Died: circa 401

Canonised:

Saint Macarius the Younger was a successful merchant in fruits, candies, and pastries in Alexandria, Egypt. He converted to Christianity and subsequently gave up his business in 335 to be a monk and hermit in Upper Egypt. For a while he lived near Saint Anthony the hermit and there are some amazing stories that grew up around the two.

After several years, he travelled to Lower Egypt, where he was ordained and lived in a desert cell with other monks, practicing severe austerities. For seven years he apparently lived on raw vegetables dipped in water. On feast days he would take a few crumbs of bread moistened with drops of oil.

He once spent 20 days and 20 nights without sleep; when burnt by the sun in the day, frozen by the bitter cold desert at night he said: "My mind dried up because of lack of sleep and I had a kind of delirium," the hermit admitted. "So I gave in to nature and returned to my cell."

He also is said to have spent six months naked in the marshes, attacked constantly by viscous blood-sucking flies and mosquitoes, all in the hope of destroying his last bit of sexual desire. The terrible conditions and attacking insects left him so deformed that when he returned to the monks, recognised him by his voice only.

Saint Martha : Patron saint of cooks

AKA: Wonder Worker of Southern Gaul

Feast: 29th July

Born: Unknown

Died: circa 80 A.D.

Canonised: Unknown

The sister of Saints Lazarus and Mary of Bethany. A known friend of Jesus and hostess to him in her house. She may have been part of an early mission to France.

Also the patron saint of butlers, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel-keepers, housemaids, housewives, innkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travellers.

Saint Pascal Baylon : Patron saint of cooks and chefs

AKA:

Feast: 17th May

Born: 24 May 1540, Torre Hermosa, Aragon, Spain

Died: 15 May 1592 (Whitsunday) at Villa Reale, Spain

Canonised: 1690

Son of pious peasants; Martin Baylon and Elizabeth Jubera. He worked as a shepherd from the age seven until he was twenty-four and was a good influence on an often rowdy group.

A Franciscan lay brother with friars of the Alcantarine Reform, often serving as a cook or a doorkeeper. His charity to the poor and the afflicted, his unfailing courtesy and humility were remarkable even by Franciscan standards. While travelling in France, he defended the Real Presence against the blasphemies of a Calvinist preacher and narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Huguenot mob. Poorly educated, he was still a counselor that was sought by the rich and the poor alike. His cult status is especially strong in Spain, southern Italy, Central and South America.

Also the patron saint of Eucharistic congresses and organizations (proclaimed by Pope Leo XIII), Obado Bulacan Philippines.

Saint Peter : Patron saint of bakers

AKA: Simon, Cephas

Feast: 22nd February (feast of the Chair of Peter, emblematic of the world unity of the Church) 29th June (feast of Peter and Paul) 18th November (dedication of the Basilicas of Peter and Paul)

Born: Unknown

Died: circa 64

Canonised: Unknown

Saint Peter was the first Pope of the Church. He was the brother of Saint Andrew and a fisherman before being called as an apostle.

Renamed "Peter" (rock) by Jesus to indicate that Peter would be the rock-like foundation on which the Church would be built.

He died around 64 A.D. by crucifixion. However, Saint Peter was crucified upside down because he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same manner as our Lord.

He has two epistles attributed to himself. Saint Peter is mentioned in the Roman Canon. He is also the Patron Saint of against frenzy, bakers, bridge builders, butchers, clock makers, cobblers, Exeter College Oxford, feet problems, fever, fishermen, foot problems, harvesters, diocese of Jackson Mississippi, diocese of Las Vegas Nevada, locksmiths, longevity, diocese of Marquette Michigan, masons, net makers, papacy, archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Popes, Poznan Poland, diocese of Providence Rhode Island, Rome, diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, ship builders, shipwrights, shoemakers, stone masons, Universal Church, watch makers.

Saint Radegonde : Patron saint of female cooks/chefs

AKA:

Feast: 13th August

Born: 518

Died: 587

Canonised: Unknown

Daughter of the pagan king of Thuringia who was assassinated by Clotaire I and who kidnapped, baptised, and married the 12 year old Radegunde, then badly mistreated her. She eventually left him and took the veil from Saint Medard. Founded and lived the rest of her life at the convent of the Holy Cross, Poiters, France. Spiritual student of Saint John of Chinon.

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