Tonight, I am baking the pies for Thanksgiving Dinner, so it is appropriate to mention the patron saint of pastry chefs (not that I'm a chef, but I have to have a reason for picking a Saint today 😊).
St. Honoratus was born in Port-le-Grand near Amiens (France) in the sixth century. He was said to be virtuous from births -- which is one of those pious things said in biographies about Saints that annoy me. I prefer Saints who have human struggles. It gives me more hope.
He resisted being elected Bishop of Amiens believing himself unworthy of this honor. According to legend, his former nursemaid also felt that he was unworthy. When it was known in his hometown that he had been proclaimed bishop, she refused to believe that Honoratus had been elevated to such a position. She was baking bread and is said to have remarked that she would believe the news only if the peel she had been using to bake put down roots and turned itself into a tree. When the peel was placed into the ground, it was transformed into a mulberry tree that gave flowers and fruit. The miraculous tree was still being shown in the sixteenth century.
St. Honoratus' devotion is widespread in France. He has given his name to a popular French pastry, the St. Honore Cake. His feast day is May 16 and he is a patron Saint of bakers, confectioners, bakers of altar bread, candle-makers, florists, flour merchants, corn chandlers and oil refiners as well as pastry chefs.
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