Patrons of Beekeeping Saint Zosima and Saint Savvatiy

I bought some honey the other day, and I read on the label, Great Lakes golden honey, Product of Argentina, Canada and Ukraine. So I looked up history of honey making in Ukraine and found it goes back to 1400s.

I found this post on Facebook about the Patron Saints of Beekeeping.

Patrons of Beekeeping Saint Zosima and Saint Savvatiy



When Saint Zosima and Saint Savvatiy founded the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea in 1436 , they were left with a huge problem. There were no bees to get the candle wax. Legend states that Saint Zozimus walked to Egypt to collect bees and a queen. He carried them back to Ukraine in a 'skep walking stick', and this was the beginning of apiculture in the Ukraine. According to medieval chronicles, from this very beginning of its existence, the Monastery had a bee yard, and that’s why people believe that these two saints have taught people how to keep bees.

According to another legend; ‘The two saints kept a bee farm and looked over it, though they never sold their bees. Then God put them to sleep for three days. At that time, the bees flew around the forests and people would take over the apiaries. Not surprisingly, therefore, that the two saints are depicted on icons with different beekeeping equipment of that time, beehives and bees. In the past, people always kept an icon with the image of Saint Zosima and Saint Savvatiy at the entrance to the bee yard, and beekeepers did not start their work without praying first. Saint Zosima’s day is celebrated on April 30. There was a saying: ‘Greet the bee on Zosima’s day and there will be hives and wax’. Another interesting note is that the day of Saint Zosimus (30 April) and Saint Savvaty (10 October) fit the entire bee season.