Today’s post concludes the series on the Benedictiones ad Mensas. Here, various drinks are blessed and the author begins to lose focus. After this section, the text concludes with a number of verses that praise abstemiousness and draw on the theological significance of water, wine, and bread. These will be included with the full translation as it goes up, but do not teach us much about food.
Blessing of drinks
Benedictio potum
222 May these cups of wine taste of the joy of the Lord
Lętitiam domini sapiant hęc pocula vini
223 May all our drink be a blessing of the Lord
Sit noster potus domini benedictio totus
224 May the holy right hand of God bless our cups
Sancta dei dextra benedicat pocula nostra
225 May blessing fill entirely the drink of this brother
Hunc fratrum potum repleat benedictio totum
226 May the triune one bless the gift of so many chalices
Tot calicum munus benedicat trinus et unus
227 Christ, pour out your dew over this liquid
Christe tuum rorem super hunc effunde liquorem
228 May the vintner bless the gift of this mild vine
Vinitor hęc mitis benedicat munera vitis
229 May grace bless this drink made from the vine
Vitibus enatum benedicat gratia potum
230 God Christ, bless this intoxicating drink made from the vine
Vitibus enatum benedic dee Christe temetum
231 Derive pleasure joyfully from the true vine
Lęti haurite de vera gaudia vite.
232 May God mix this Falernian with inner strength
Misceat interna deus hęc virtute phalerna
233 May blessing be on this wine by the gift of God
Munere divino sit huic benedictio vino
234 May the cross give this must a flavour of pleasing sweetness
Crux det in hoc mustum placida dulcedine gustum
235 May the must flavoured by the spirit taste good
Quam sapiant gusta condita pneumate musta
236 May new grace render this drink of the vine fortunate
Hunc vitis haustum faciat nova gratia faustum
237 May Bromius not know these cups and Bacchus avoid them
Nesciat hęc Bromius fugiat charchesia Bachus
238 May it please Christ to bless the light-coloured must
Complaceat Christo niveo benedicere musto
239 May the blessing make the recently pressed must pleasing
Musta recens hausta faciat benedictio fausta
240 Christ Jesus, make the must and the old wines good
Christe hiesu musta bona fac et vina vetusta
241 May both the old and new wines be good
Vina vetustatis bona sint simul et novitatis
242 May the drunkenness of the Holy Spirit make the minds be joyful while sober
Pneumatis ebrietas mentes det sobrie lętas
243 May the Creator strengthen this wine against all poison
Conditor hoc vinum confortet in omne venenum
244 May the intoxicating drink of the living vine render the heart joyful
Cor faciat lętum viva de vite temetum
245 May this pure drink be entirely perfused by the admixture of Christ
Christi mixtura sit perflua potio pura
246 May this spiced wine be watered with dew from above
Hoc pigmentatum supero sit rore rigatum
247 May the blessing render the sweet juniper wine agreeable
Dulce Savinatum faciat benedictio gratum
248 Christ, make the juice of the apples into a flavourful cider
Sucum pomorum siceram fac Christe saporum
249 May the drink made of mulberries be full of excellent flavour
Potio facta moris superi sit plena saporis
250 May this raisin wine cause nobody’s head to become weak
Neminis hoc Passum caput efficiat fore lassum
251 May the Holy Spirit breathe his dew into this mead
Pneuma suum rorem det in hunc spirando Medonem
252 May a thousand flavourful cups be healthy from good mead
Mille sapora bonis sint pocula sana Medonis
253 May the celestial right hand of God bless this honeyed wine
Dextra dei celsa velit hęc benedicere Mulsa
254 When the foe is repelled, may blessing be on this honeyed wine
Hoste propulso sit huic benedictio mulso
255 May the strong barley beer be blessed by the unconquered cross
Fortis ab invicta cruce Coelia sit benedicta
256 Through this did cursed Numantia suffer many deaths
Dira per hanc fortes subiit Numantia mortes
257 Grace be upon this excellently and recently brewed beer
Optime provisę vix gratia sit Cerevisę
258 May no admixture be done to the well-brewed beer
Non bene provisę confusio sit Cervisę
Item
259 May the unadulterated drink of water make the heart clear
Cor faciat clarum potus sincerus aquarum
260 May the hand of the Almighty cleanse this drink from the spring
Hunc haustum fontis mundet manus omnipotentis
261 May no living spring be harmful to the stomach, o Christ
Nulli fons vivus stomacho sit Christe nocivus
262 As for Timothy whom Paul gave wine for medicine
Timotheo vinum Paulus cui dat medicinam
263 May this chalice be cold through your merit, unique and happy one
Frigidus iste calix mercede sit unice felix
264 May the sacred dew of the Spirit render these waves clean
Pneumatis has mundas faciat fore ros sacer Undas
As with foods, Ekkehart delivers specific blessings for a wide variety of beverages, but wine clearly gets top billing. That is not surprising, given it is both the preferred drink in the classical Roman tradition and important in Christian ritual. The author uses a great deal of poetic circumlocution to describe it as well as drawing on some classical Latin terminology. There is, for example, a reference to Falernian wine in #232. This wine from Campania was prized in the Roman Empire for its flavour and the fact that it aged well. The best kind could be kept for decades. It is highly unlikely that the monks of St Gall actually drank Falernian, but the word may well refer to a wine of similar qualities, or just a particularly good one. In #250, we find passum, which was a particularly sweet and flavourful wine made from grapes that were partly dried on the vine to concentrate their sugar and flavour. How similar to the Roman drink whatever Ekkehart called by this name was in unknown. It may already have been made using fruit affected by Botyris cinerea or ‘noble rot’, but we cannot be sure of this. It is tempting to think that Ekkerhart already savoured a Trockenbeerenauslese, though.
In #237, Ekkehart makes a reference to Greco-Roman gods. This is very likely no more than a classical allusion to noisy drunkenness, something monks were expected to avoid decorously; Bromius, the roaring or thundering one, is a byname of Dionysos, hence Bacchus, so it is the same deity. A classically educated person would know this. I cannot exclude the possibility that he actually thought of Bacchgus as a real entity the same way Satan is real to him, but I suspect rather not.
Beyond wine, we have several references to mustum. In classical Latin, this refers to freshly pressed juice as well as young wine still in fermentation. Since it is contrasted with old wine in #240, the latter is the likelier interpretation. Today, the German word Most often refers to apple or pear wines, but here it is clearly grape wine. We also learn that at least some of the mustum was light-coloured. Niveo in #238 literally means snow-coloured, so this is probably something like Federweißer.
As we go beyond grape wine, we find a variety of other beverages addressed briefly. There is savinatum, most likely a wine flavoured with juniper, and sicera. Originally a Biblical term referring to an unknown alcoholic beverage, sicera it is often used to refer to cider and perry, as is the case here, and eventually takes on that meaning exclusively. Mulberry wine (elsewhere refrred to as moratum) and mead (medo) are mentioned, as are cer(e)vise, beer, and mulsum, which is most likeky a honey-sweetened wine.
Towards the end, Ekkehart turns to praising water. This is what you would expect of a monk who was supposed to live abstemiously and eschew drunkenness (except – see #242 – the drunkenness of intense religious experience). I am not entirely convinced of his sincerity here, but what is more interesting is that he makes no reference to the classical habit of mixing wine with water. This was universal in the Greco-Roman world, but seems entirely unfamiliar to him.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. They are a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.