Wine saint’s day: Vincent of Saragossa

Today winemakers across Europe and the world, will pay homage to the most famous of wine saints; Vincent of Saragossa.

Fêted with processions and masses, perhaps the most famous salute to St Vincent happens in Burgundy, where each village will hold a procession and the Chevaliers du Tastevin will hold the Festival de la Saint-Vincent-Tournante.

St Vincent was martyred in 304 AD by the empeor Diocletian.

During the last great crackdown on Christians by Diocletian in the fourth century, Vincent and his bishop Valerius were imprisoned in Valencia by the local governor.

Valerius, due to his old age, was exiled but Vincent’s refusal to renounce his faith, even under torture on the rack and gridiron, led to his execution. Before this took place he was able to convert his jailer.

His body, having been thrown to the vultures, was said to have been protected by a raven before it was picked up by the incoming tide and was washed ashore again some time later and was buried by a pious widow who discovered the corpse.

Why he is associated with wine is a little unclear. One story is that winemakers identify with his suffering under torture as a result their yearly fight with the weather and the blights that afflict their vineyards, another is that the “Vin” in “Vincent” is of course the French for “wine” – which is perhaps a bit of a stretch.

A more plausible link is that 22 January is also known as ‘Sunbeam Day’ which, in folklore, holds that should the sun shine on that day it heralds good weather for the year to come – and what winemaker wouldn’t want that?

As one poem relates:

“Remember on St. Vincent’s Day,
If that the sun his beams display,
Be sure to mark the transient beam,
Which through the casement sheds its gleam,
For ’tis a token bright and clear
Of prosperous weather all the year.”

As well as a patron saint of winemakers, Vincent is patron of vinegar makers, as well as the cities of Lisbon and Vicenza.