THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, JULY 1
Today’s feast began in Spain in the sixteenth century and was extended in 1849 to the whole Church by Pope Pius IX in gratitude for regaining possession of the Papal States from the Italian revolutionaries and their Freemason allies. Pope St. John XXIII elevated the rank of this feast in 1960, for he saw in it traces of God’s ongoing love of the Church. His apostolic letter On Promoting Devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ is available on the Vatican’s website and makes excellent reading for the day.
Today’s feast was traditionally observed in addition to Good Friday, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a way of entering more deeply into the inexhaustible mystery of Our Lord’s atoning Blood. The Epistle to the Hebrews states that the Blood of Christ “speaks better” than Abel’s (12:24) because it speaks not of guilt but of reconciliation. Alleluia! The feast was suppressed in 1969 (when it was combined with Corpus Christi), but it is still a powerful and important devotion.
Enjoy some sangria (named for its bloodlike color) on this day as you thank God for being washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb. Sangria is made from wine, and in Hebrew, the juice of the grape is known as the “blood of the grape.” Sangria is also a great summer drink that comes from Spain, the same country that gave us the feast of the Precious Blood. There are many variations of sangria: here is one from our friend Karen Hickey. The intriguing option of arugula comes to us from the blog Gimme Some Oven.
Wine
As we will see in our next entry, a California red wine is fitting. Particularly apt are the wines produced by Sanguis, a winery in Santa Barbara County, California. (Sanguis is Latin for “blood.”)
Sangria
1 (750 ml) bottle of dry red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot (it’s okay if it is a cheap bottle)
½ cup brandy
½ cup sugar
¼ cup orange liqueur
1 orange, thinly sliced
1 lemon, thinly sliced
splash of orange juice
Optional:
½–1 can of lime soda
other fruit, e.g., banana, strawberry, lime
To add a sharp, peppery taste, ½ cup arugula
Stir together wine, brandy, sugar, orange liqueur, and orange juice in a large pitcher until the sugar is dissolved. Muddle the arugula separately—if you want arugula—so that the flavor is released, and add to the wine mixture. Add the fruit, lightly muddling it as you do so to release the juices. Stir. Cover and refrigerate two to twenty-four hours. Stir in soda if desired, then strain and serve over ice.
Sangria Shortcut
And if you can keep a secret, here is a very simple sangria shortcut for the harassed host or hostess from our friend Alyssa Barnes. Mix ½ can of frozen Fuzzy Navel mix with one bottle (750 ml) of red wine. That’s it. Of course, if you want to start with that and then make it taste a little more authentic, you could add some brandy to that and float some sliced fruit on top.
LAST CALL
As for a toast, how about the line from the ancient prayer Anima Christi: “Blood of Christ, inebriate me!” (That’s spiritual inebriation, of course.) Pope Leo XIII once granted an indulgence (no longer valid) to a beautiful invocation that can still be used with pious profit:
Hail, saving Victim, offered on the gibbet of the cross for me and for the whole human race. Hail, precious blood, flowing from the wounds of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ and washing away the sins of the whole world. Remember, O Lord, Thy creature that Thou hast redeemed by Thy precious blood.
BL. JUNÍPERO SERRA, JULY 1
Another good thing to come out of Spain is the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra (1713–1784). A highly regarded professor of philosophy in Spain, he joined the missionary college of San Fernando in Mexico and then volunteered for mission work among the Native Americans. He went to great lengths to call his Indian congregation to repentance during his sermons, such as pounding his breast with a stone, scourging himself, and applying a lit torch to his bare chest. He also learned their language and translated the Catechism for them. Serra was appointed superior of a group of fifteen Franciscans and went on to found the twenty-one California missions, going as far north as Sonoma. He traveled on foot despite a chronic and painful leg injury and bravely resisted the Enlightenment policies of the secular government. Bl. Junípero passed away on August 28, but his feast is observed on July 1, the date that he first set foot in what is now San Diego.
Among Bl. Junípero Serra’s gifts to the Golden State is its wine industry, since it was the Franciscans who planted the first vineyards in California with grapevines that the Jesuits had brought to Mexico. You can kill two birds with one stone and combine your celebration of the Precious Blood with that of Bl. Junípero by using a California red wine for your sangria. Even better, find a California wine called Mission Bell, named in honor of the state’s mission history.
Sangria is a drink more fit for a large party. For a more intimate gathering, you might instead honor Father Serra’s religious name, Junípero, or Juniper, which he took in honor of an early Franciscan saint. Juniper (the plant) is the main ingredient of gin. Martini, anyone? (See p. 20.) And, of course, a Gin and Tonic on a summer’s night is hard to turn down.
Gin and Tonic
1½ oz. gin
tonic water
1 lime wedge
Add gin to a highball glass filled with ice. Fill with tonic, and squeeze lime into it. Stir gently.
THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, JULY 2 (MAY 31)
A moment after she learned that she would be the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary also learned that her elderly cousin Elizabeth was six months gone with child. Anyone else might have been tempted to rest on her laurels, basking in the knowledge that she was singularly favored among all women and that all generations would be calling her blessed. But not Our Lady. Without giving a thought to herself, Mary—a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl now bearing the Son of God—arose “and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Juda,” to help her aged kinswoman. On Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist, leapt for joy in her womb, and Mary uttered the beautiful canticle called the Magnificat (Lk. 1:46–55). The Church annually celebrates this joyful mystery of Mary’s life with the feast of the Visitation.
Wine
We believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary deserved a light refreshment after all that hard work at the home of Zachary and Elizabeth, and that her fiancé, St. Joseph, would have been there to provide her one when she got back home. (Keep in mind that the mores concerning expectant mothers drinking wine were different in first-century Palestine from twenty-first century America.) Assuming that you don’t need to finish any leftover sangria from the night before (see July 1), look for a bottle of Magnificat Wine, a Bordeaux blend of red varietals, grounded on Cabernet Sauvignon, produced by the Franciscan Estate in California’s Napa Valley. The bottling is named for J. S. Bach’s masterpiece; but tonight, enjoy both the wine and the music as you read the account of the Visitation in the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel.
LAST CALL
Since the Visitation began with Mary’s utterance of the Magnificat, make your toast: “To Our Lady of the Visitation, whose soul magnifies the Lord.” Then, after the first or second round, initiate a discussion on what it means to “magnify” God.
Our Lady’s likely assistance at the birth of the Baptist also calls to mind the curious origin of the word “gossip.” In the Middle Ages, a “god-sibling” or “god-sib” was a child’s sponsor at baptism. From this formal spiritual affinity the word was extended to any close friendship, especially to a woman’s female friends who assisted her in childbirth. You could say, then, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was St. Elizabeth’s gossip. Once the word came to be associated with a group of women, however, it took on—no doubt thanks to some rather chauvinist male logic—the connotation of prattling and rumor-mongering that it has today.
To reclaim a little of the older, nicer meaning, try a Godmother cocktail.
Godmother
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. amaretto
Build vodka and amaretto in an old fashioned glass and fill with ice.
Note: If you eschew overly sweet drinks, adjust to 1 oz. vodka and ½ oz. amaretto if necessary.
ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE (JULY 3)
In the ordinary form of the Roman rite the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle is celebrated on July 3, and in the extraordinary form it is kept on December 21 (see pp. 350–53). Even if you already celebrated St. Thomas’s feast in December, in the spirit of the Doubting Thomas you have to ask yourself: Are you sure you celebrated it? How do you know that it wasn’t just a dream? Wasn’t it the year before that you are remembering and not last year? And did you really celebrate it properly?
If the answer to any of these questions is less than satisfactory or riddled with uncertainty, you need to celebrate the Apostle’s feast again. After all, since Thomas’s name means “twin,” he should be remembered twice. Only, you’ll want to have a Tom Collins (see pp. 109–10) instead of a Tom & Jerry (see the entry on December 21 for other suggestions [pp. 350–53]).
COMMEMORATION OF ALL HOLY POPES, JULY 4
We defer to secular wisdom on the proper way to celebrate the Fourth of July, but if you want to add some liturgical piety to your Independence Day, turn to a little-known feast day that never made it to the universal calendar but was allowed to be observed in some places prior to the Second Vatican Council (for a post–Vatican II liturgical option, see St. Elizabeth of Portugal, pp. 160–61).
The Commemoration of All Holy Popes would have occurred within what was once the octave of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Of the 266 Vicars of Christ in the history of the Catholic Church (as of this publication date), 80 are recognized as saints. Not bad. And if we interpret the commemoration of all holy popes to mean all holy popes and not just the ones who have been canonized, we can also include Venerable Pius XII (reigned 1939–1958) and Bl. Pius IX (1846–1878), as well as God knows who else—which we don’t mean flippantly but literally. There is even a saint who was an antipope, St. Hippolytus of Rome (anti-reigned 217–236), though I suppose we shouldn’t number him among those honored today.
LAST CALL
Celebrate the history of the papacy at its very best while enjoying a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape (which hails from one of the less stellar chapters in papal history—see p. 91), and savor the irony of doing both simultaneously. You can even use an expression attributed to the third pope in Avignon, Benedict XII (1285–1342): Bibamus papaliter, or “Let us drink in a papal manner.” Benedict’s enemies, who accused him of being a toper and the inspiration behind the phrase “as drunk as a pope,” are behind the attribution, but you can attach to the statement only the most pious of meanings.
Or, after a few rounds of whatever Fourth of July drink is in the cooler, launch into a heated discussion comparing and contrasting the Holy Popes with America’s Founding Fathers. After several more rounds, invent a superhero comic book pitting the two groups against each other. And once the Drink has loosened your inhibitions, belt out “God Bless America”—in Latin.
Beet Americam Deus*
By Irving Berlin
Beet Americam,
Amatam Deus!
Teneatque, foveatque,
Per noctem in lucem supernam,
A montanis, usqu’ad prata, usqu’ad mare spumosum.
Beet Americam,
Dulcem patriam!
Beet Americam,
Dulcem patriam!
* The first word is pronounced “BAY-et.” Translated into Latin by Michael Foley with the help of Dr. David White.
ST. GOAR, JULY 6
Goar of Aquitaine (ca. 585–649) was born in the southwest of France and was known for his sanctity and forceful preaching. After a while St. Goar wished for a more quiet life, and so he moved on to dwell as a hermit in a cave at Oberwesel on the banks of the Rhine in Germany. Goar’s sanctity was discovered by the locals, and soon he found himself ministering to their spiritual needs. Kind to all, he built a hospice and a chapel for the people. St. Goar is the patron of innkeepers, potters, and, more to our purposes, vine-growers.
The site where St. Goar built his hospice and chapel is now the town of Sankt Goar on the left bank of the Middle Rhine. Sankt Goar’s vineyards, which grow mainly Riesling, are under the local winemaking appellation—or Großlage—of Rheinburgengau. If you cannot find a Rheinburgengau wine, pay tribute to St. Goar with any Riesling you can find.
ST. MARIA GORETTI, JULY 6
July 6 is also the feast of St. Maria Goretti (1890–1902), the young girl who chose martyrdom over the sexual advances of a man whose lusts had been aggravated by pornography. After his conviction and incarceration, Maria’s murderer remained unrepentant. Years later in prison, however, he had a dream of Maria gathering lilies and handing them to him. The man felt the peace of forgiveness, and his heart was forever changed. He and Maria’s mother, along with over 250,000 other people, would attend Maria’s canonization ceremony on June 24, 1950.
Addressing that immense multitude, Venerable Pius XII delivered a touching homily. “Why does this story move you even to tears?” he asked them. “Why has Maria Goretti so quickly conquered your hearts, and taken first place in your affections?” The pope continued:
The reason is because there is still in this world, apparently sunk and immersed in the worship of pleasure, not only a meager little band of chosen souls who thirst for Heaven and its pure air—but a crowd, nay, an immense multitude on whom the supernatural fragrance of Christian purity exercises an irresistible and reassuring fascination. During the past fifty years, coupled with what was often a weak reaction on the part of decent people, there has been a conspiracy of evil practices, propagating themselves in books and illustrations, in theaters and radio programs, in styles and clubs and on the beaches, trying to work their way into the hearts of the family and society, and doing their worst damage among the youth, even among those of the tenderest years in whom the possession of virtue is a natural inheritance.
All this in 1950. Imagine what Pius’s reaction would be today! Today let us unabashedly raise a glass to that old-fashioned and adorable virtue of purity. I am sure that St. Goar (above) would love to provide some of his vintage for a feast honoring St. Maria Goretti. Or, for this dear soul, how about a Sweet Maria? You may be tempted to make it a double if you think too long about society’s current slouch toward Gomorrah, so focus instead on the triumph of Maria Goretti’s short but beautiful life and pray for her generous help.
Sweet Maria
1½ oz. cream
¾ oz. amaretto
¾ oz. vodka
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
STS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS, JULY 7
(FEBRUARY 14)
Cyril and Methodius (fl. 9th c.) were Greek brothers sent by the Byzantine emperor and the patriarch of Constantinople to preach to the Moravians. These “Apostles to the Slavs” brought Christianity to several lands in Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria and what is now the Czech Republic, or they strengthened the Christianity already there. The brothers were such industrious missionaries that they invented the Cyrillic alphabet in order to translate the Bible into Slavonic. Cyril, who had been consecrated a bishop by the pope, died in Rome in 869, while his brother, Methodius, died in Moravia in 885.
Father John Grant and his friends who observed “Saints and Spirits” (see p. 432) used this occasion to sip the Serbian plum brandy 
or slivovitz, served chilled as an aperitif in a special shot glass. Slivovitz is an especially appealing option if you are keeping the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius on February 14, its date in the post–Vatican II calendar.
And, of course, nothing speaks to the Slavic soul like vodka. According to the Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide, “Vodka has humility. Colorless, tasteless, odorless, it will graciously assume the characteristics of whatever it is mixed with.” A liquor with humility that acts “graciously”? Sounds perfect for a holy day.
Vodka taken straight makes a “fine aperitif with smoked salmon or hot sausage” (Mr. Boston again). There are several higher-end vodkas fit for sipping, including but not limited to Absolut, Stoli Elit, Grey Goose, Chopin, Ketel One, Belvedere, and 
(see pp. 218–19). Perhaps the vodka with the best value that we have come across is Tito’s Handmade vodka. On the other hand, you can usually get away with using a bottom-shelf vodka (well, maybe the second shelf from the bottom) in a mixed drink. Several vodka cocktails are mentioned in this book. Here are two other classics.
Lemon Drop Martini
1½ oz. vodka
¾ oz. lemon juice
½ oz. triple sec
1 tsp. superfine sugar
sugar
1 lemon twist
Prepare a cocktail glass by lightly wetting the rim and dipping it in (regular) sugar. Place vodka, lemon juice, triple sec, and superfine sugar into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into the cocktail glass and garnish with lemon twist.
Note: If you don’t have superfine sugar on hand, take a teaspoon of regular, granulated sugar and make a simple syrup out of it.
Sea Breeze
1½ oz. vodka
4 oz. grapefruit juice
1½ oz. cranberry juice
1 lime wedge
Build all ingredients in a highball glass filled with ice and garnish with lime wedge.
LAST CALL
The greeting in the Byzantine rite during this time of the year is Slava Isusu Christu (“SLAH-vah eess-OOSS-ooh KREESS-tohh”)! To which the response is Slava Na V’iki (“SLAH-vah NAH VEE-kee”)! If you can’t fake the Church Slavonic, use the English: “Glory be to Jesus Christ!” “Glory forever!”
Beer
Or, since the historic territory of Greater Moravia is now principally in the Czech Republic, you can drink a famous Czech pilsener, or pilsner, beer, first brewed in the 1840s and named after its birthplace, the city of Pilsen. Pilsner beers in general are yellow-colored pale lagers with a distinct hop flavor and aroma. Czech pilsners differ from German pilsners because of the Saaz hops they use, which have been described as spicier and more floral. Pilsner Urquell is the original Czech pilsner and is still going strong, but with the rise of microbreweries there are lots of local competitors.
ST. ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, JULY 8
(JULY 4; JULY 5 IN THE U.S.)
Elizabeth (Isabel or Isabella in Spanish and Portuguese) (1271–1336) was named after her great-aunt St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Even as a girl Elizabeth said the entire Divine Office, went to High Mass at least once a day, fasted and did penance, and avoided frivolous amusement. She was married young to a dissolute king who kept a corrupt court. Elizabeth maintained her virtue and went to extraordinary lengths to help the poor. Her goodness incurred jealousy, and she was falsely accused by a page of infidelity with another page. The enraged king ordered a lime-burner to throw into his furnace the first page who came to him and then sent the accused page to the lime-burner. On the way, however, the lad stopped for Mass. Impatient over the lack of any news, the king sent the wicked page to see what had happened, and the lime-burner threw him into the furnace. The astonished king interpreted these events as a divine confirmation of Elizabeth’s innocence.
Elizabeth is sometimes called “the Peacemaker.” She once reconciled her son and husband when the son, tired of his father’s preferences for his illegitimate children, rebelled. Elizabeth rode in between the two opposing armies and made peace before the battle was met.
For a mixed drink, have an Isabella (see p. 318) or Isabelita (see p. 41). Or commemorate the lime-burner incident with one of the oldest and most famous cocktails: a tart but refreshing Lime Rickey (pretend that Rickey was the lime-burner’s name). Even better, use Apollinaris sparkling water. The original recipe from the 1880s calls for it, and Apollinaris water is named after another July saint (see pp. 177–78).
Lime Rickey
1½ oz. gin
½ oz. lime juice
Apollinaris sparkling mineral water
1 lime wedge
Build gin and lime juice in a highball glass filled with cracked ice. Top with sparkling water and stir until cold. Garnish with lime wedge or lime wheel.
LAST CALL
Someone can raise a glass and say, “To St. Isabella: Blessed are the peacemakers!” To which the rest answer: “For they shall be called the children of God!” Some mention of “peace on earth” would also be appropriate, as the phrase has a good biblical pedigree; but “world peace” is a cliché best left to hippies and beauty pageant contestants.
(Fortified) Wine
Rainha Santa, named after today’s “Queen Saint,” is located in the heart of Portugal’s Douro region, one of the oldest regulated and demarcated wine regions in the world—and, it is claimed, “the most charismatic of all.” Rainha Santa produces a number of different ports that are available in the United States, but if you cannot find a bottle, any port will do. The Peacemaker wouldn’t want you in a quarrelsome mood on her feast day.
ST. KILIAN OF WÜRZBURG, JULY 8
St. Elizabeth has no beers linked to her feast, so let an Irishman provide them. St. Kilian, a missionary to Bavaria, did much to convert the savage Franks to the faith and met a martyr’s death similar to John the Baptist’s for opposing the marriage of the local duke to his brother’s widow. Treat yourself to a fine Bavarian beer in his honor, such as a Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. Or honor the saint’s name with a Killian’s Red Ale, once brewed in Ireland and now produced in the United States.
STS. JOHN FISHER AND THOMAS MORE,
JULY 9 (JUNE 22)
St. John Fisher (1459–1535), bishop of Rochester, was beheaded on June 22, 1535, for his defense of the Church against King Henry VIII. A learned and holy man, he was arguably the only virtuous bishop in all of England when that “miserable monarch” (to quote the Baronius Missal) proclaimed himself the head of the English Church.
St. John Fisher was a humble man, so he won’t mind if we focus more on his holy “partner in crime.” Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) was the most successful lawyer in the kingdom and the most celebrated humanist of the day when he agreed to become Henry’s lord chancellor. Incredibly versatile in his writing and thinking, More could be, in the words of one contemporary, “a man of marvellous mirth” as well as a man of “sad gravity.” If you don’t believe it, buy yourself a copy of More’s Utopia—a word that he coined—or his Dialogue concerning Heresies, which C. S. Lewis called the best Platonic dialogue ever written in English.
For refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy recognizing the king as head of the Church in England, More was executed as a traitor on July 6, 1535, which was then the octave day, fittingly enough, of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Even on the gallows More kept his gentle humor, asking the executioner if he could remove his beard from the chopping block, since it had not been convicted of high treason. More’s reputation for integrity and conscience has stood the test of time. His friend Erasmus, who famously described him as a “man for all seasons,” provided an interesting glimpse of More’s eating and drinking habits.
I have never seen any person less fastidious in his choice of food. As a young man, he was by preference a water-drinker, a practice he derived from his father. But, not to give annoyance to others, he used at table to conceal this habit from his guests by drinking, out of a pewter vessel, either small beer almost as weak as water, or plain water. As to wine, it being the custom, where he was, for the company to invite each other to drink in turn of the same cup, he used sometimes to sip a little of it, to avoid appearing to shrink from it altogether, and to habituate himself to the common practice. . . . But he does not shrink from things that impart an innocent pleasure, even of a bodily kind.
Beer and Wine
Let us not shrink either from the innocent pleasure of beer, wine, and other strong drink, even if we don’t share More’s bizarre preference for water. Small beer was inexpensive, low-alcohol beer consumed by children, servants, and manual laborers as a way of escaping water-transmitted diseases (the alcohol in the water was just enough to kill pathogens without making you groggy). Older readers or residents of Utah and a handful of other states may be familiar with “low-point” or “three-two beer”—a brew that contains only 3.2 percent alcohol and that could once upon a time and place be sold to eighteen-year-olds. “Farm table beer,” such as the Belgian pale ale sold by Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company, is based on a similar principle, although its alcohol content of 4.5 percent is a bit higher than a three-two beer and most American light beers (4.2 percent).
Why make the hard choice among these options? Throw a Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More dinner party and have them all. Serve Sir Knights as a preprandial drink, wine or small beer (howsoever defined) with the meal, and Mudslide Ices for dessert. Erasmus tells us that More liked beef and salted meats, so the host or hostess has a fairly wide range of carnivorous choices. And you can toast to the faithful Fisher and the merry More with an adaptation of the latter’s last words: “To the king’s good servants, and God’s first!”
Today, the term “small beer” is also used for the second runnings from a very strong beer mash and for beers that are thought to lack flavor. For small beer in the first sense, the easiest to find is probably Anchor Small Beer, produced by the Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco from the second runnings of their Old Foghorn Barleywine. For small beer in the second sense, turn to the blandest light beer you’ve ever tasted and have at it.
Or, since it is St. John Fisher’s feast day too, have a beer bearing the name of his bishopric. The Rochester Mills Beer Company in Rochester, Michigan, has a number of fine ales from which to choose. St. John Fisher was also a champion of the little guy in his small and poor diocese, and so a beer exemplifying the English working class, such as any bitter or brown, would be appropriate. (Newcastle Brown Ale is a good choice, even though it hails from a different region of England.)
As for wine, these saints were not terribly discriminating, so we shouldn’t be either. Pick a random bottle from your cellar or wine rack, or let the Spirit be your guide at your local liquor store.
Cocktails
More was knighted in 1521, so have a Sir Knight cocktail. Like More himself, this mixed drink with cognac and Cointreau has a sophisticated side. And the Chartreuse is a nice tie-in to the Carthusian order, which More came close to joining as a young man and several of whose members were martyred in London shortly before Fisher and More.
Sir Knight Cocktail
1 oz. cognac
¾ oz. Cointreau
¾ oz. yellow Chartreuse
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 lemon twist (for garnish)
Pour all ingredients except lemon into a shaker filled with ice and stir until very cold. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with lemon.
Or, in equally fond memory of More’s very earthy humor and his vigorous mudslinging with Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and other early Protestants, mix yourself and your companions a Mudslide.
Mudslide
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. Baileys Irish Cream
1 oz. Kahlúa
chocolate syrup (optional)
Prepare a goblet or an old fashioned glass by pouring chocolate syrup around the inside rim and filling it with ice. Pour all other ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into the glass.
You can also make a Mudslide Ice by adding to the above mixture half a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a couple of ice cubes, and ½ cup of milk, putting them in a blender, and blending them until the drink looks like a milkshake.
ST. BENEDICT (JULY 11)
In the ordinary form of the Roman rite, the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia is today, the date on which his relics are believed to have been translated to Fleury Abbey in St. Benoît-sur-Loire in France. In the traditional or extraordinary form of the Roman rite, his feast day is March 21, the day of his heavenly birthday (see pp. 58–63). We don’t blame you for wanting to celebrate the founder of Western monasticism twice in one year. After all, given all the drinks the Benedictines developed, you’ll need far more than one sitting to appreciate them.
ST. JOHN GUALBERT, JULY 12
John Gualbert (ca. 995–1073) was an Italian nobleman whose only brother had been murdered. Swearing revenge, John chanced to come upon his brother’s killer face-to-face in a narrow passageway on Good Friday. When John drew his sword to slay him, the man “besought him by the passion of Jesus Christ, who suffered on that day, to spare his life.” The memory of Christ, who prayed for his murderers on the cross, greatly affected John, and lifting his brother’s killer from the ground, said to him: “I can refuse nothing that is asked of me for the sake of Jesus Christ. I not only give you your life, but also my friendship forever. Pray for me that God may pardon me my sin.”
Whatever you choose, use it as a bracer to steel your courage and forgive your enemies in imitation of St. John. It will either be easier or harder after the second or third round, depending on whether you’re a happy drunk or an angry one.
John repaired to a nearby monastery to pray. As he knelt before the crucifix begging forgiveness for his sins, the figure of Christ bowed his head three times, signaling His approval. St. John eventually became an exemplary monk, the founder of his own religious community at Vallombrosa in Italy, and a courageous opponent of the simony and clerical immorality plaguing the Church at the time. St. John’s powerful story of repentance and anti-corruption is a reminder that true reform, like charity, begins at home.
There are Villa Vallombrosa wines from Provence, France, but your best bet is finding a wine from Tuscany, the region in Italy where John’s Order of Vallombrosa was founded. And since that order follows the Rule of St. Benedict, any of the Benedictine beverages would be appropriate for today (see pp. 58–63).
ST. BONAVENTURE, JULY 14 (JULY 15)
Giovanni di Fidanza (ca. 1217–1274), born in Bagnoregio, Italy, took the name Bonaventure after his mother pleaded with St. Francis of Assisi to cure him of a dangerous illness (which he did). Francis foresaw little Giovanni’s future greatness, proclaiming, O buona ventura!—“Oh, good fortune!” Bonaventure would join the Franciscan order, become its superior, and teach theology at the University of Paris, where he became friends with St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Louis IX, king of France. One of the great theologians of the Middle Ages, he is now recognized as a doctor of the Church.
LAST CALL
Raise a glass and say, “To the good fortune of having the Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure among our intercessors.”
St. Bonaventure was a humble man. When the pope decided to make Bonaventure a cardinal, he sent two papal messengers to his monastery to present him with the wide-brimmed cardinal’s hat called a galero. They asked for Bonaventure at the door and were escorted to the kitchen, where the great professor of theology and Franciscan superior was washing dishes! Best of all, Bonaventure asked them to hang the galero on a tree until he finished up.
Tonight, finish the dishes (even if you’re not asked to) and raise a glass to such a holy man. You can commemorate the Seraphic Doctor, as Bonaventure is known, with a Red Seraph Merlot produced by Sharpe Hill winery in Connecticut or any of the red and white wines made by the Seraphim winery in Australia (although these will be difficult to find in the United States). We also have seen cocktail napkins that say “Good Friends, Good Fortune, Good Wine”—an appropriate tribute to Bonaventure’s friendship with Sts. Thomas and Louis as well as to the meaning of his name. You can also hail Bonaventure’s moniker with a Good Fortune cocktail, a drink so cool and refreshing that you can barely taste the alcohol.
Good Fortune
1¼ oz. vodka
¾ oz. blue curaçao liqueur
6 oz. lemonade
1 lemon wheel
Pour all ingredients except lemon wheel into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice (such as a poco grande or a hurricane glass) and garnish with lemon wheel.
ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA, JULY 14
Kateri, or Catherine, Tekakwitha (1656–1680), known as the Lily of the Mohawks, is the first American Indian to be canonized. The daughter of an Algonquin mother and a Mohawk father, Kateri was born in what is now Auriesville, New York. She survived a smallpox epidemic (which scarred her face when she was four years old and took her parents’ lives) and various attacks on her village from the French and enemy tribes. After being catechized by Jesuit missionaries, she converted at the age of twenty and was baptized, even though the Jesuits were reluctant to baptize Indian converts until they were certain of the candidate’s total commitment. As a Catholic, Kateri suffered ridicule from her fellow tribesmen, so she moved to a Jesuit mission village south of Montreal. Kateri lived a model life of chastity and mortification (which she practiced for the conversion of her people) and died at the young age of twenty-four.
Kateri’s tribe was from the New York area, but indigenous peoples throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico celebrated her canonization in 2012. Balcones Distilling in Waco, Texas, a new superstar on the world stage of whiskeys, produces three spirits from atole, a Hopi blue corn meal (also known as Hopi maize) that has been cultivated on this continent since time immemorial: Baby Blue, True Blue, and True Blue Cask Strength. The corn hearkens to the glories of Native American culture and St. Kateri’s noble spirit.
Since Balcones is in high demand, you may have to rest content with Canadian whisky. One enticing option is a Turtle cocktail, especially since Kateri was from the Turtle Clan of the Mohawks and is often portrayed in Christian art with turtles. The Turtle also requires Bénédictine—if only the Jesuits had made this liqueur, the symbolism would be perfect, but the fact that it is named after a religious order is good enough.
Turtle
2 oz. Canadian whisky
½ oz. Bénédictine
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
White Lily
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. Daiquiri rum
1 oz. gin
1 dash absinthe
Pour all ingredients into a shaker or mixing glass filled with ice and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Or you can toast to the “Lily of the Mohawks” with a White Lily.
LAST CALL
For a toast, why not use St. Kateri’s touching last words? “Jesus, I love you!”
ST. HENRY, EMPEROR AND CONFESSOR,
JULY 15 (JULY 13)
It’s not every day that one sees a saint with the title “Emperor and Confessor,” since political power and holiness do not always go hand in hand. Yet St. Henry II (973–1024), duke of Bavaria, king of Germany, and then holy Roman emperor, beat the odds. He practiced a white marriage with his wife, St. Cunegunda, built and rebuilt churches, founded monasteries, and ruled his realm with virtue and justice. When he and Cunegunda visited Rome for their coronation ceremony, he had a vision in the Basilica of St. Mary Major of Jesus Christ the High Priest offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—take that, Martin Luther!
But the story that inspires our drink choice of today is of another vision that St. Henry had. As an adult he dreamt that a beloved childhood teacher who had passed away, St. Wolfgang, was pointing to the words “After Six” written on the wall. Henry awoke alarmed. Could it mean that he had six days to live? St. Henry hastily prepared for his death with prayer. But after six days, he was still alive. Could it mean six months? Again he prepared for a holy death with good works and prayer, but at the end of six months he was in better health than ever. It must mean, Henry reasoned, six years before I die. But when the six years passed, instead of dying, Henry was elected king of Germany, thereby revealing the dream’s true meaning. Happily, Henry’s misreading of the signs had only increased his holiness.
To honor St. Henry the Pious, here is a delicious “After Six” cocktail invented by our friend Mark Patton with ingredients taken from Henry’s earthly domain, viz., Swiss bitters and Maraschino cherry juice. (And the vodka can symbolize the spoils that King Henry took from the Slavs, against whom he constantly battled.) In the spirit of St. Henry’s misinterpretation of the dream, “After Six” can also be interpreted to mean the time to start drinking, but please do not construe it to mean “after six drinks.”
LAST CALL
To St. Henry the Pious: May we rule ourselves and those entrusted to us as well as he did, and may all our misreadings be as profitable to our salvation as his.
After Six
1½ oz. vodka
1 oz. lemon juice
½ oz. orange juice
¾ oz. Maraschino cherry juice
½ oz. Swiss (Gran Classico) bitters
1 lemon twist
Pour all ingredients except lemon twist into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with lemon twist.
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL, JULY 16
The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel began in the fourteenth century as a way of thanking the Blessed Virgin Mary for her protection of the Carmelite order during its difficult first years. Founded in Europe in the twelfth century, the order carries on a tradition that quite possibly stretches back to the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Later on, the feast came to be associated with what is formally called the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and what is more commonly known as the brown scapular. It is believed that this sacramental was given by Our Lady to St. Simon Stock, the English general of the Carmelite order, in 1251, along with the promise that whoever wears the brown scapular and fulfills several other conditions will not suffer damnation.
The brown scapular and the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are also linked in popular imagination to the so-called Sabbatine Privilege, the belief that Our Lady will rescue her special disciples from Purgatory on the first Saturday after they have died. Technically, this belief is not attached to the brown scapular per se but to members of the Carmelite order. The belief in a first-Saturday deliverance, moreover, has received a pointedly icy reception from the Magisterium.
But hey, folk belief is folk belief. Add new meaning to the term “Sabbatine Privilege” with the following semi-original cocktail, a sweet concoction that is ideal for after dinner.
Sabbatine Privilege
1 oz. banana liqueur
1 oz. coconut rum
½ oz. dark rum
1 splash of cream
Build ingredients in an old fashioned glass filled with ice and stir until very cold.
There is a joke that one of the top ten pick-up lines among traditional Catholics is “You have the most beautiful scapular-brown eyes.” In the same spirit, let’s add a Carmel adjective to the name of another after-dinner drink and call it a . . .
(Scapular) Brown Cow
1 oz. coffee liqueur
2 oz. milk
Pour ingredients into an old fashioned glass filled with ice and stir until cold.
Lastly, playing off the words “Carmel” and “caramel,” you can treat yourself to a Caramel Mochatini. (Say “caramel” fast enough and your guests won’t know the difference.) And isn’t the color of this drink the same scapular-brown as the eyes of your Catholic beauty?
Caramel Mochatini
1 oz. vodka
½ oz. white crème de cacao
½ oz. coffee liqueur
½ oz. butterscotch schnapps
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
ST. ARNULF, JULY 18
St. Arnulf of Metz (580–640) was the great-grandfather of Charlemagne and a military commander and civil administrator. He married a noble woman named Doda and had two sons, Anseghisel and Clodulf (also known as St. Cloud, who was to become his third successor in the see of Metz). By universal acclaim, Arnulf was chosen to be bishop of Metz, where he discharged his office with great success. He grew tired of the episcopal grind, however, and eventually withdrew to a solitary place until his death. His remains were transferred about a year later to the Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Metz.
St. Arnulf is better known in English as St. Arnold (but not to be confused with St. Arnold of Soissons [pp. 213–14]). Like his namesake, Arnold of Metz is a patron saint of brewers, a distinction he earned when he saved the people of Metz from the plague by telling them to drink beer instead of water. (We also suspect that he came to appreciate the virtues of beer because he was married with kids.) Arnold would advise his flock that beer was safe and tell them that “from man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.” There is a legend that when his parishioners went to collect his remains after his death, they grew weary on the way and ran out of provisions. Tempted to turn around, one devout fellow named Duc Notto prayed, “By his powerful intercession the Blessed Arnold will bring us what we lack.” Immediately the little amount of beer left at the bottom of a pot “multiplied in such amounts that the pilgrims’ thirst was quenched and they had enough to enjoy the next evening when they arrived in Metz.”
What else is there to do on this day, then, than follow this holy bishop’s advice? Named after today’s saint, St. Arnold Brewing Company is Texas’s oldest craft brewery. You should have no difficulty tracking down their successful line of beers bearing the saint’s name if you live in Texas, Louisiana, or Florida, but if you suffer the misfortune of living elsewhere, any Belgian or German beer will suffice. St. Arnold’s see of Metz, in northeastern France, is near Belgium and Luxembourg and has historically been influenced by Germanic culture.
LAST CALL
Repeat over and over again until you believe it: “From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.” For good measure, throw in St. Brigid’s “Lake of Beer” poem (see p. 23).
ST. VINCENT DE PAUL, JULY 19
(SEPTEMBER 27)
St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) has become a household name because of the Catholic charitable societies bearing his name in parishes across the country. Born in Gascony, France, Vincent led an eventful life. After he was ordained a priest, he was captured by Barbary pirates, taken to North Africa, and auctioned off to the highest bidder. After two years of slavery, including service to an apostate priest whom he is said to have restored to the faith, Vincent escaped to Europe. Back in France, Father Vincent was eager to relieve all forms of distress: chiefly the moral and material poverty of the peasantry, but also the terrible conditions of galley slaves, convicts forced to row in galley-ships. He founded the Congregation of the Priests of the Mission (the Vincentians) and, with St. Louise de Marillac, the Daughters of Charity. St. Vincent’s example inspired a renewal of spirituality in the priests of France during the seventeenth century.
Paraphrasing today’s collect, you can raise a glass and say, “To the Apostle of Charity: May we profit by his example of caring for the poor and honoring the priesthood.”
You can cheat today and use any of the wines or drinks for St. Vincent the Deacon for today’s Vincent (see pp. 12–14). Surely the Apostle of Charity would not begrudge a little sharing. Or in recollection of Vincent’s period of enslavement, you can have a Pirate’s Cocktail.
And of course, why not an eponymous drink? We’re not sure which Vincent this is named after, but again, charity, people.
Pirate’s Cocktail
1¾ oz. dark rum
¾ oz. sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
St. Vincent Cocktail
¾ oz. Galliano
1 oz. light rum
¾ oz. gin
1 dash grenadine
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
ST. MARGARET OF ANTIOCH, JULY 20
Margaret, also known as Marina or Marine (d. 304), was a beautiful Christian maiden whom the Roman prefect at Antioch wished to marry. But since he attached to his proposal a demand to apostatize, Margaret refused. She was tortured and eventually executed. Colorful stories abound about St. Margaret, the most famous being that Satan, in the form of a dragon, swallowed her but was forced to cough her up because the tiny cross she carried irritated his innards. Consequently, she is now a patron saint of pregnant women! St. Margaret is one of the saints who spoke to St. Joan of Arc, and she is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Sankt Margarethen in Burgenland, Austria, has about a dozen local winemakers, but they do not appear to export. You’ll have better luck with the wines of the Viña Santa Marina in the Navarre region of Spain or those of the Santa Marina winery in the province of Pavia in Italy, such as the affordable and accessible Pinot Grigio.
Santa Margherita wines from northern Italy likewise take their name from today’s saint. They comprise a wide range of wines and are fairly accessible in the United States. Use their Prosecco sparkling wine to make a Peach Bellini, a delicious Italian cocktail invented in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry’s Bar in Venice, and named after the Venetian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini. Why did Cipriani name the drink after Bellini? According to one story, he wanted a cocktail to imitate the “pinkish glow” of a saint’s robe in a Bellini painting and came up with a mixture of white peach and red raspberry, both of which are in season during the summer. Today there are numerous variations of the Bellini, but only the original has the famed pinkish glow. Here it is now.
Peach Bellini
2 oz. puree of white peaches and red raspberries
3½ oz. Santa Margherita Prosecco
Take white peach (also called a Sugar May, Scarlet Pearl, Southern Pearl, or White Lady) and a few raspberries and puree them in a blender or macerate them manually until they form a paste. Place the puree at the bottom of a champagne flute and top with Prosecco.
Of course, the most obvious mixed drink for today is a margarita, and since we are in the middle of July, that’s not a bad idea (see p. 39). But with the legends of St. Margaret in hand, one can also go in a different direction. Instead of being inside a dragon, why not have the dragon inside you? There are a number of “Green Dragon” cocktails marauding the countryside at your local watering hole: here are two of them.
A final and somewhat intriguing option if you can find it is Sanct Margarethener Bitter, an herbal schnapps made since 1920 by Mührenberg Spirituosenfabrik in the Itzehoe region of Germany and billed as a “lady’s liqueur.” It comes in two versions: Bitter 50% and Bitter 60%.
Green Dragon Variation No. 1
1 oz. green crème de menthe
1 oz. vodka
½ oz. Cointreau
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Green Dragon Variation No. 2
1 oz. green crème de menthe
1½ oz. milk
1½ oz. cream
½ oz. pastis (an anise-based liqueur like Absente, Herbsaint, Pernod, and Ricard)
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
ST. MARY MAGDALENE, JULY 22
The story of this sinner-turned-saint is well known thanks to the New Testament. Mary Magdalene’s contrition before Our Lord inspired so many medieval portraits of her weeping that it led to the term “maudlin” (a British pronunciation of “Magdalene”) for something that is mawkish. “Maudlin” has even been defined as overly sentimental because of drunkenness: “To drink maudlin” is an obsolete phrase for reaching the stage of inebriation where one becomes tearfully emotional.
We do not recommend drinking maudlin, but we do recommend drinking to the Magdalene. For a cocktail, the beverages recommended for St. Mary of Egypt (see pp. 74–75) will also serve nicely to toast the two-staged life of this great penitent. There used to be a Saint Magdalene Distillery in the Scottish Lowlands. It is, alas, no more, although you can still pry a bottle away from a collector for the right price. An easier option is a Madelaine Cocktail made with the Catholic liqueur Drambuie (see pp. 296–97).
LAST CALL
St. Anselm composed a beautiful Prayer to Mary Magdalene that will keep you from drinking maudlin.
Madelaine Cocktail
1 oz. cognac
¾ oz. Drambuie
¾ oz. dry vermouth
Pour the ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Wine
For a vino in honor of St. Mary Magdalene, try San Antonio Winery’s Maddalena series of fine wines (see p. 133). The Clos La Madeleine winery in the Bordeaux region of France makes a Saint Émilion Grand Cru Classé. Château Magdelaine, on the other hand, merged with Château Bélair-Monange in 2012 and lost its name.
ST. APOLLINARIS, JULY 23 (JULY 20)
Born in Antioch, Apollinaris (d. ca. 200) became the first bishop of Ravenna, where he preached the Gospel in the face of tremendous persecution. He was exiled, beaten, scalded with hot water, stabbed, imprisoned, starved, and eventually put to death. Ravenna’s magnificent Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe stands on the site of his martyrdom.
Apollinaris mineral water is named after today’s saint. Georg Kreuzberg bought a vineyard in Germany’s Eifel region in 1852 and was disappointed when its grapes did not thrive. Literally wanting to get to the bottom of things, he dug down fifty feet and discovered an underground spring of naturally carbonated mineral water. Kreuzberg named the spring after St. Apollinaris, a patron saint of wine. Today Apollinaris is billed as the “Queen of Table Waters.”
Apollinaris water goes well with wine. It does not affect bouquet or flavor, it cleanses the palate, and its alkaline qualities help neutralize acids. And for a veritable Apollinarian feast of refreshment, see if you can find a bottle of Domaine Saint-Apollinaire. Located near Puyméras, France, it produces a number of white, red, and rosé wines under the AOC of Côtes du Rhône.
Wine Cooler
2 parts red wine
1 part Apollinaris
1 dash grenadine (optional)
lemon wheel, cherry
Add liquid ingredients to a highball glass filled with ice and stir until very cold. Garnish with lemon and cherry.
Or make some coolers for the family—a Wine Cooler for the grownups, and a Grape Cooler for the young’uns.
Classic Grape Cooler
Apollinaris classic mineral water
6 seedless red grapes
2 tsp brown sugar
4 lemon balm leaves (also called balm mint or lemon mint)
Crush the red grapes, lemon balm leaves, and sugar in a highball glass. Fill the glass with crushed ice and Apollinaris and stir. Garnish with lemon balm leaves if desired.
St. Christina of Bolsena, from the region of Tuscany in Italy, was a young maiden from the third century. Her wealthy pagan father, wanting her to become a priestess, filled her room with idols. But after Christina was educated by an angel, she threw all the idols out the window, earning her father’s ire and precipitating her eventual martyrdom. Eastern Christians know her as Christina the Great Martyr.
One of the estates operated by Antinori, a six-hundred-year-old Italian winery with an impressive worldwide distribution, is Santa Cristina. Made in St. Christina’s native Tuscany since 1946, Santa Cristina products include local varietals, fortified dessert wine, Vin Santo (see p. 364), grappa, and olive oil.
ST. SHARBEL MAKHLUF, JULY 24
Youssef Makhluf (1828–1898), a shepherd who had lost his father at the age of three, took the religious name Charbel, or Sharbel, when he entered the monastery of St. Maron in Annaya near Beirut. After being ordained a priest, St. Sharbel was “ruthless on himself,” practicing great asceticism and spending the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Months after he died, a mysterious light radiated from his tomb, and it was discovered that his body, secreting sweat and blood, was completely incorrupt. St. Sharbel’s body was still incorrupt and flexible the last time it was examined by doctors, in 1950.
St. Sharbel’s holiness, Bl. Paul VI explained in 1965, helps us “understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance, and asceticism to liberate the soul in its ascent to God.” And St. Sharbel, a Maronite Catholic, also reminds us in the Roman rite that there are over twenty rites under the one umbrella of the Catholic Church. The Maronite Church has a beautiful history of fidelity to the unity of the Church and to the Holy See, so on this day that celebrates one of her great sons, let us raise a glass filled with something from Lebanon.
When you toast, as toast you must, pray that St. Sharbel may intercede for the universal Church and for our Maronite brethren (it’s not easy being Christian in Lebanon these days), and end with the traditional Arabic toast: Fisehatak (“Fih-sa-HA-tak”)—To your health!
Almaza Beer, a light pilsner from Lebanon made under the supervision of Amstel Brewery, is available in the United States. But the traditional alcoholic beverage of Lebanon (along with several other parts of the Middle East), is an anise-based distilled spirit called arak or araq. There are a number of Lebanese distilleries that produce arak, and many of them, such as El Massaya, Fakra, Gantous & Abou Raad, Ksarak, Razzouk, Tazka, and Wardy, are exported to the United States. The traditional arak mixed drink is one part arak and two parts cold water; the water releases the flavors and the oils in the anise and gives the mixture a mysterious and appealing cloudiness. To the faint of heart, arak might sound intimidating, but in the spirit of St. Sharbel, one must be prepared to mortify the flesh.
ST. JAMES THE GREATER, JULY 25
Our Lord nicknamed St. James (d. 42 or 43) and his brother, St. John the Apostle, the “Sons of Thunder.” James is also given the epithet “the Greater” to distinguish him from “James the Lesser” (or the Younger), the Apostle who was Our Lord’s cousin. Together with Sts. Peter and John, James the Greater was one of the three Apostles given the special privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor and His Agony in the Garden. St. James was beheaded in Jerusalem on the orders of Herod Agrippa.
St. James’s feast day is most famously tied to Santiago de Compostela in Spain (“Santiago” is a Galician development of the vulgar Latin Sanctu Iacobu). According to legend, St. James preached the Gospel on the Iberian Peninsula for a while before returning to the Holy Land. After he was martyred, his body was taken to Jaffa, whence it was transported by a marvelous stone ship back to Spain. There the Apostle’s disciples asked a deceitful pagan queen for a place to bury the body, and after foiling a number of her traps they buried it at Compostela, where it rests today. The body was rediscovered in the ninth century when a star led the local bishop to its location. Hence the name Compostela, which is believed to be a corruption of Campus Stellae, or Field of the Star.
Whatever the truth behind these tales, one thing is certain: Santiago de Compostela was an enormously popular pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages, ranking third only to Rome and the Holy Land. To this day, many of the faithful piously make the pilgrimage—called El Camino, or “the Way”—wearing or carrying a scallop shell, the symbol of St. James and the Camino.
If you are throwing a party for the feast of St. James, you might want to try your hand at a Flaming Galician Punch or Queimada, an alcoholic punch with close cultural ties to the area in which Santiago de Compostela is located. Traditionally one recited a spell against witches and demons while making the punch, but this can be substituted for a more pious and effective blessing or prayer. And Queimada is usually made outside at night with a shallow clay bowl and a lid, but here too you can improvise on location and material.
A Galician aguardiente de orujo is the active ingredient of choice. Start your search by looking for an orujo Gallego, such as Sierra del Oso’s Aguardiente de Orujo. Failing that, look for any orujo, whether it is from Galicia or not. Failing that, look for any aguardiente (“fire water”), the generic term for an aquavit that is made throughout the Hispanic world. And failing that, use any eau-de-vie or aquavit you can find.
Cocktails
If Queimada is not your cup of tea, you can honor St. James—a bishop and a martyr with connections to Spain—with a Bloody Bishop (see p. 111). Or you can try a mixed drink that bears his name. There are a couple of choices; the Santiago Cocktail below is the simplest.
Brandy and Rum
Other parts of the world like St. James too. In at least one area of medieval England, apples were blessed on this day. Calvados, named after a ship from the Spanish Armada, is an apple brandy distilled in Normandy, France, that is aged for at least two years in oak casks and is worthy of toasting a Son of Thunder. So too are the products of the St. James Distillery in Martinique, such as their Fleur de Canne Blanc and their precious St. James Rhum Vieux XO. Lastly, the city of Santiago in Cuba has a number of rums, including a line called Santiago de Cuba Añejo.
Queimada, or Flaming Galician Punch
3 lemons
3 cups aguardiente (practically all of a 750 ml bottle)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons whole coffee beans
6 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
Peel the yellow part of the lemon rinds into long strips with a vegetable peeler. Add the lemon strips, aguardiente, sugar, coffee beans, and cinnamon sticks to a large heavy pot. Stir over medium-low heat; when the sugar dissolves, turn off heat. Carefully set the mixture on fire (use a long lighter or matchstick). Allow the mixture to burn until the flame turns blue, about 3 minutes. Cover the pot with a lid to extinguish the flame, or cover earlier if flames become dangerously high. Ladle into cordial glasses and serve.
This recipe, which has approximately twelve servings, gives a whole new meaning to “punch”—it really packs one. And you wouldn’t think that a warm drink on a summer night would hit the spot, but Queimada is both delicious and refreshing.
Santiago Cocktail
1½ oz. light rum
¾ oz. lime juice
½ tsp. powdered sugar
¼ tsp. grenadine
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Beer and Wine
Since it is July, you might be in need of a cold one. The Brasserie St. James in Reno, Nevada, has the right name, but it does not seem to extend beyond the city limits of America’s divorce capital. The Forschungsbrauerei in Munich, Germany, makes a well-regarded St. Jakobus Blonder Bock. In El Salvador, the brewery La Constancia makes a Santiago light lager that has been called a poor man’s Corona. The Cismontane Brewing Company in Rancho Santa Margherita, California, makes a Smokin’ Santiago Scotch Ale that has been well received, but it can be found only in local bars and restaurants.
Wineries and vineyards have been far more liberal in their adoption of St. James’s name. The French region of Burgundy has a number of wines named for him. Bourgogne Côte Saint Jacques is the name of an AOC appellation for French red, white, and rosé wines produced from Côte Saint-Jacques, a thirty-two-acre vineyard. In the Rully subregion of Burgundy, a vineyard called Clos Saint-Jacques provides Chardonnay grapes for the Antonin Rodet winery’s Rully Saint Jacques and for the Domaine Saint-Jacques Marissou, founded by Christophe Grandmougin. Not far from the Clos Saint-Jacques is another vineyard called Les Saint-Jacques, which produces a Chardonnay for the Domaine de Villaine called Rully Les Saint-Jacques. Elsewhere, the wineries Louis Jadot, Frédéric Esmonin, Domaine des Chézeaux, Gerard Raphet, Domaine Dupont-Tisserandot, Domaine Tortochot, and Domaine Drouhin-Laroze all produce a Premier Cru from the Lavaux (or Lavaut) St-Jacques vineyard under the appellation of Gevrey-Chambertin (look for “Lavaux St-Jacques” or “Lavaut St-Jacques” on the label). Domaine Odoul-Coquard has a Pinot Noir Nuits-Saint-Georges “Aux Saints-Jacques,” named after their vineyard north of the commune Nuits-Saint-Georges. Finally, the family-run Domaine Fougeray de Beauclair produces a Marsannay St. Jacques wine, made from a vineyard that “sits at the top of the hill in Marsannay and takes its name from all the fossilized scallops and other seashells that litter this limestone grounded vineyard.”
LAST CALL
As the Spanish say to Compostela pilgrims, ¡Buen Camino! Or if you are feeling feisty, channel the battle cry used by troops during the Reconquista of Spain and Cortez’s conquest of Mexico: ¡Santiago! or ¡Santiago y cierra, España!, which means “St. James and close in on ’em, Spain!”
The numerous wines from Sanctus Jacobus in Germany are labeled with the image of a haloed St. James as a Santiago pilgrim with his staff and cockleshell. In Italy, the winery Giacomo Ascheri Nebbiolo d’Alba in Piedmont produces wine from the Bricco San Giacomo vineyard (“San Giacomo” is Italian for St. James: look for it on the label). Ca de Medici has a Lambrusco “San Giacomo” Chiara/Rosato. In the New World, the Domaine Saint-Jacques, which hails from “the warmest region of Québec,” produces red and white ice wines (see p. 278 for more on this intriguing kind of wine).
But perhaps your safest bet of all is to find a California wine made from the highly regarded Sangiacomo Family Vineyard in Sonoma. The wineries that have a special Sangiacomo bottling include but are not limited to Ancien Wines, Benziger Family, B. R. Cohn, Calstar, Flowers, Gundlach Bundschu, Ravenswood, and X Winery (which is not a typo).
ST. CHRISTOPHER, JULY 25
In case you didn’t have enough choices with the feast of St. James, you can also toast to the famous patron saint of travelers and the plastic king of dashboards. “Christopher” means “Christ-bearer,” and this is meant to be taken literally. According to legend, Christopher was a giant of a man (seven and a half feet tall) who wanted to serve the greatest king ever. He was in the service of a mighty potentate, but he noticed that his lord made the sign of the cross at even the mention of the Devil, and as for the Devil, the fiend was obviously not the greatest, because he was afraid of a cross at a roadside.
Christopher eventually became convinced that Jesus Christ was the greatest king ever and became a Christian. Instead of fasting, he carried people across a river as a ferryman. One day he agreed to carry a small child. To his dismay, the child weighed an enormous amount, and Christopher realized that he was bearing Christ, who had on His shoulders the weight of the world. When they reached the other side of the river, the child instructed Christopher to plant his staff in the ground. When he did so, it blossomed into a palm tree with fruit. This miracle precipitated the conversion of many and attracted the attention of the civil authorities, and so Christopher was beheaded for the faith. He became the patron saint of travelers (hence his prominence on dashboards and medals) and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Modern historians pooh-pooh all this as nonsense, but maybe it’s time to pooh-pooh modern historians, for as Chesterton says, “I would rather believe in old wives’ tales than in old maids’ facts.” St. Christopher is one of the most popular saints in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, and when the “experts” suppressed his feast in 1970, no less a figure than Sophia Loren, it is said, protested by leaning out of the car window and holding a statue of St. Christopher on the hood while driving around in circles in front of St. Peter’s Square.
You can contemplate the conflicting claims of historical science and folk piety as you sip a beverage in honor of St. Christopher. The island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean is named after today’s saint. According to the story (history or legend?), Christopher Columbus, who discovered the island, was so enraptured by its “beauty and saintly shape that he named the island after the patron saint of all travelers, St. Christopher.” Saintly shape?! St. Kitts is the home of Brinley Gold rum, which comes in various flavors and is available in the United States. You can use it to make a Christophe cocktail.
Christophe
1½ oz. rum
¾ oz. gin
¼ tsp. sugar
1 lime wedge
Pour all ingredients except lime into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with lime.
Beer and Wine
Two Belgian breweries have a beer named after St. Christopher: Martens and Brasserie de Silly. (A note of reassurance: Silly is a Walloon village and has nothing to do with the common meaning of this word in English.) Not far away, Holland’s Bierbrouwerij Sint Christoffel makes a number of pilsners and lagers.
The French have a saying, often inscribed on their St. Christopher medals, that makes a nice toast: Regarde St. Christophe et va-t-en rassuré—“Look at St. Christopher and go on reassured.” Another toast can invoke his protection in all our travels in the upcoming year, while still another can express gratitude for all his protection while traveling during the previous year.
As for wine, there are several connections to our giant saint. In the region of Bordeaux, there is a winery called Château Saint-Christophe (under the appellation of St-Émilion) that makes a classic Grand Cru. In Germany there is a strange concoction called St. Christopher Glühwein, billed as “a delicious blend of red wine and spices [that] should be served hot” (for Glühwein, see p. 360). In the Rhône region, the AOC appellation Hermitage was named after a hermitage dedicated to St. Christopher (Crozes-Hermitage is a related appellation north of l’Hermitage). The Rhône also has an appellation called Plan de Dieu (“God’s Plain”). During the Middle Ages, this area was a forest infested with bandits, and so when you passed through it, you were putting your life in God’s hands. A fitting wine to commit to your glass on the feast of the patron saint of travelers.
ST. ANNE, JULY 26
Like many devotions, the cult of St. Anne developed in the East and came to the West with the Crusaders returning from the Holy Land. According to the story, Anne and her husband, Joachim, were a childless elderly couple who prayed to God for offspring and were rewarded with a daughter whom they named Miriam (the Blessed Virgin Mary). The popularity of St. Anne grew enormously, and she is the patroness of numerous places and peoples, as well as of grandmothers, housewives, pregnant women, horseback riders, carpenters, broom-makers, lace-makers, seamstresses, and miners (to name a few). She is also invoked against poverty and sterility.
And because of a rumor that St. Anne had three husbands in her lifetime, she is also invoked by spinsters and maidens to find them a mate. After all, if Anne could marry successfully three times, why can’t she find just one guy for me? Hence Anne was implored with little ditties like:
Send me a good and loving man.
The vigil of St. Anne’s Day (St. Anne’s Eve) was a great occasion for matchmaking and debutante balls: both Johann Strausses composed “Anne Polkas” for these festivities. Following an old saying that “All Annes are beautiful,” these events would be called a “festival of all Annes,” that is, a festival of all beautiful ladies. Fireworks would light the summer sky, and the sounds of laughter, music, and dancing would fill the air.
What a splendid occasion for a drink! To celebrate, we have tweaked an Ann Sheridan cocktail to come up with the Saint Anne.
Saint Anne
1½ oz. light rum
¾ oz. lemon juice
½ oz. orange curaçao liqueur
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Or, in honor of the grandmother of the Lord and her patronage of fine soirées, have the refreshing summer drink called a Granny Gala.
Granny Gala
1 oz. Midori melon liqueur
1 oz. Sourz apple liqueur
lemonade
Pour Midori and Sourz into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Pour into a highball glass filled with ice and top with lemonade.
Beer and Wine
Forchheim, Germany, has an annual ten-day “Annafest” that attracts as many as five hundred thousand visitors. The town’s breweries all make a special beer for the occasion. Hebendanz and Greif both make an Annafest Bier, and Neder makes a St. Anna Festbier. That’s about it in the world of beer for Our Lord’s grandmother, although you’ll be happy to know that one can purchase online St. Anne beer steins and thereby christen any beer for your own Annafest.
LAST CALL
Whether you are a single person looking for a spouse or a married person wishing the best possible match for your single friends and family, let us all toast St. Anne today with the invocation, “We beg you, holy mother Anne, send our Christian maidens a good and loving man.” Then, enjoy your drink as you listen to some Anne Polkas.
Douglas Green Wines, one of the oldest winemakers in South Africa, makes a St. Anna wine, a sweet white with a crisp finish. In France, Domaine Sainte-Anne in the Languedoc-Roussillon region produces a number of wines, including a Picpoul de Pinet, a bright and fresh white wine that is growing in popularity. Bois Sainte-Anne is a smaller winery in Bordeaux under the Médoc appellation, and Clos Sainte-Anne is in the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux subregion. Or to put some effervescence in your Festival of All Annes, Chartogne-Taillet makes a brut champagne Cuvée Sainte-Anne in a magnum size (1.5 liters).
In Jumilla, Spain, the Casa de la Ermita winery produces an award-winning variety of wines under the label Monasterio de Santa Ana, while the Santa Ana winery in Mendoza, Argentina, makes an affordable and accessible white wine called Casa de Campo Torrontes. In Italy, Tenuta S. Anna in Veneto makes reds and whites, and Villa Sant’Anna (also called Villa Anna) in Tuscany makes a fine Chianti.
ST. PANTALEON, JULY 27
St. Pantaleon of Nicomedia (d. 303), a nobleman and a physician, was martyred during the Diocletian persecution. In the Greek East, Pantaleon is honored as one of the Great Martyrs. In the Latin West, he is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saints whose intercession is considered especially efficacious. St. Pantaleon is invoked for consumptive diseases.
According to one tradition, Pantaleon was martyred by being nailed to an olive tree. When the tree was bathed in his blood, it brought forth leaves and fruit. Subsequently, Pantaleon is portrayed in Christian art with a nail and an olive tree.
Time, then, for a Rusty Nail. This 1950s classic, made famous by the likes of the Rat Pack and my ultracool ex–LAPD homicide detective Uncle Claude, never fails to please.
Rusty Nail
1¼ oz. scotch
¾ oz. Drambuie
Build ingredients in an old fashioned glass and fill with ice.
LAST CALL
Fill your glass to the brim and shout, Piante Lione! (Pants are optional.)
Pantaleon has played an unwitting role in men’s fashion. He was popular in Venice, partly because his name resembles the Venetian battle cry Piante Lione (“Plant the Lion”). The name Pantalone became attached to a stock character in Italian comedy who generally appeared in distinctive Venetian breeches. The garment came to be known as pantaloons, or pants for short.
St. Pantaleon’s Day thus presents us with a double irony. First, our most common word for trousers comes from a saint who probably never wore or saw a pair in his life. Second, given the temperature on July 27, we celebrate the eponymous patron of pants on one of the days we are least inclined to wear them.
In honor of the odd migration of the saint’s name, try Ants in the Pants, a Prohibition-era libation.
Ants in the Pants Cocktail
1 oz. gin
½ oz. Grand Marnier
½ oz. sweet vermouth
1 dash lemon juice
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
And if you can find it, enjoy a red, white, or rosé Rhône wine produced under the appellation Saint-Pantaléon-les-Vignes in the Drôme region of Provence, which takes its name from an old Benedictine abbey.
ST. MARTHA, JULY 29
What an honor to have been Martha, Mary, or Lazarus, the three siblings in Bethany whom Jesus loved to visit when He was in Judea. On one of these occasions, Martha was “busy about much serving” while Mary sat at the Lord’s feet, absorbing every word. When Martha complained to Jesus about her sister’s apparent indolence, He replied, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and art troubled about many things: but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10:40–42). Martha and Mary came to be seen in the Christian tradition as embodiments of the active life and contemplative life, respectively. The active life is by no means bad, but the contemplative life, which everyone is called to have at least some share of, is closer to the bliss of the Beatific Vision.
Of course, being active has its merits too. According to the Golden Legend, Martha moved to southern France in a rudderless ship. At the time, a river dragon was terrorizing the locals. One of the monster’s more peculiar features was that, when chased, it defecated an ordure half an acre wide, which was like glass and made whatever it touched burn like fire. At the behest of the townsfolk, Martha confronted the dragon, sprinkling it with holy water and displaying the cross. The saint leashed the now docile creature with her girdle and led it back to the people, who stabbed it to death. (Not exactly the happy ending of St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio!) The dragon’s name was Tarasconus, and the town it harassed has ever since been called Tarascon. Since 1474, Tarascon has had an annual festival celebrating Martha’s defeat of the dragon. The story is slightly farfetched, but not as outlandish as the Golden Legend’s other assertion that St. Martha abstained from all wine while in the South of France.
A good place to start today is with a cocktail like the Martha (see below), but you can also steal some dragon recipes from St. Margaret of Antioch (see pp. 174–76).
Martha
1½ oz. bourbon
¼ oz. Maraschino liqueur (substitute: Cherry Heering, etc.)
1 dash orange bitters
¼ oz. pastis
1 lemon twist
Putting aside the pastis and lemon twist, build ingredients in an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Float the pastis on top and garnish with lemon twist.
LAST CALL
Give the Martha in your life a break today by helping out with serving. Or, if you are the Martha, choose the better part and sit at the Master’s feet while someone else frets over the details. One thing is necessary, that you and your friends be filled with the merriment of fellowship in Christ as you bend the elbow together.
Taken in moderation, all of the fine products and concoctions listed above will help you forget the many things by which thou art troubled and lift you up to the contemplative life. Taken to excess, they will make you see defecating dragons. Either way, begin the evening by raising your glass high and saying, “To choosing the better part!”
Wine
Caves Santa Marta is located in the municipality of Santa Marta de Penaguião, in the heart of the Douro region of Portugal, one of the oldest regulated and demarcated wine regions in the world—and, the company says, “the most charismatic of all.” It produces white, red, and ruby port wines, along with a Portugese aguardente (aquavit) generically called bagaceira.
In Valdeorras, Spain, the family-run Bodegas Santa Marta makes a number of different red and white wines, and in the Tuscany region of Italy, Leonardo Salustri has a Santa Marta bottling of red and white wines. In France, the Domaine Sainte-Marthe in the Languedoc-Roussillon region has two bottlings: a vin de pays de Cassan under the label Domaine de Sainte-Marthe and an AOC Coteaux du Languedoc under the label Château Sainte-Marthe.
ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, JULY 31
Íñigo López de Loyola (1491–1556) was born in the castle of Loyola above Azpeitia in the Basque Country of Spain. He had “a somewhat fiery and warlike nature,” which is a nice way of saying that he was a poster boy for Latino machismo, coupled with powerful family connections that got him out of the trouble that gambling, quarreling, and sword-play got him into. (Oh, and he also had an eye for the ladies.) Not surprisingly, Ignatius became a military officer. After a battle in which he was wounded by a cannonball, his leg did not heal properly and had to be broken and reset (without anesthesia). The leg healed this time, but with a bony protrusion below the knee. Ignatius found this unacceptable, as it made it impossible to wear the tight-fitting boots and hose of a courtier, so he ordered the doctors to saw off the offending knob (again without anesthesia). Who knew that the wages of vanity could be so high?
During his long recuperation, Ignatius wanted to read romance novels, but since the family castle had none, he had to settle for a life of Christ and a book on the saints. The effect on him was dramatic. St. Ignatius abandoned his worldly ways and founded the Society of Jesus. Better known as the Jesuits, the order became renowned for its teachers, missionaries, and scientists. They were also feared for their crafty ways—to this day, “Jesuitical” is used for someone who is equivocating or dissembling. And the Jesuits took some heat for their practice of casuistry, most notably from the withering pen of Pascal. At its best, casuistry is a method of taking into consideration the particularities of individual cases when making moral judgments. At its worst, it is a method for defining down deviancy and excusing sinners of their sin—of “getting into Heaven by the skin of your teeth.” Needless to say, it is thanks to casuistry that we were able to write a book like this.
Jesuitical Juices
What better way to pay tribute to Ignatius’s Basque heritage than with a bottle of Izarra, a sweet herbal Basque liqueur that comes in yellow and green versions, the yellow having an almond taste and the green a peppermint finish. Or, to acknowledge the influence of St. Ignatius’s spiritual sons on the world around us, imbibe some Italian grappa, a delicious pomace brandy that was for the longest time made with methods perfected by the Jesuits (see pp. 343–44).
Better yet for the summer, have something made with passionflower (passiflora), a sixteenth-century discovery that Jesuit missionaries in Mexico employed as an allegory of Our Lord’s Passion (see p. 407). How very Jesuitical.
Some cocktail recipes call for a slice of passion fruit, some for passion-fruit syrup, and others for passion-fruit nectar. Perhaps the most famous is the Pat O’Brien’s Hurricane, a New Orleans original popular with tourists. Below is the original recipe from the 1940s followed by its more common contemporary version. For a refreshing nonalcoholic alternative, try the Passion-Fruit Italian Cream Soda.
(Classic) Hurricane
1 oz. light rum
1 oz. dark rum
½ oz. lime juice (or juice of a lime wedge)
½ oz. passion-fruit syrup (or ½ oz. passion-fruit juice and ½ tsp. simple syrup)
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Lastly, find a bottle of Aromes de Montserrat, an herbal liqueur formerly made by the Monasterio de Montserrat in Spain, where St. Ignatius was told in a vision to found the Society of Jesus. (The liqueur is now produced by a secular distiller.) Perhaps after a few glasses of this digestif, you will start having visions too.
(Modern) Hurricane
2 oz. light rum
2 oz. dark rum
2 oz. passion-fruit syrup (or 2 oz. passion-fruit juice and 1 tbsp. simple syrup)
1 oz. orange juice
½ oz. lime juice (or juice of a lime wedge)
1 tbsp. grenadine
1 orange slice and 1 cherry for garnish
Pour all liquid ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake forty times. Pour ingredients, including ice, into a hurricane glass. Garnish with orange and cherry.
Passion-Fruit Italian Cream Soda
8 oz. soda water
2¾ oz. passion-fruit syrup
¾ oz. cream
Build in a highball glass filled with crushed ice. Stir when ready to drink.
Beer and Wine
St. Ignatius has a bean named after him (the Ignatia) that is used in homeopathy, but no beer. After reading his masterpiece, Spiritual Exercises, discern what beer or ale God wants you to have on this day.
With one exception, the Jesuits are no longer involved in the commercial production of alcohol, but they used to be. The name of Château les Jésuites in Saint-Maixant, France (under the AOC Premières Côtes de Bordeaux), recalls its owners before the French Revolution, while the winery Winkeler Jesuitengarten in Rheingau, Germany, was owned by the Jesuit College in the seventeenth century. The high-end winery Guigal in the Rhône region of France has a line of wine from its Saint-Joseph vineyard, which was once owned by the Society of Jesus.
And the one exception? The Jesuits founded the oldest winery in South Australia’s Clare Valley when they purchased one hundred acres in 1851 and planted a vineyard to make sacramental wine. Named Sevenhill Cellars after the Seven Hills of Rome, the operation is still supervised by a Jesuit with the title of winemaker and produces “notably sturdy Cabernet Sauvignons of high colour, huge flavor and long life.”
Finally, the Jesuits earn an assist for what is now the California wine industry, since they brought to Mexico the grapevines that the Franciscans would eventually take to Alta California. Any California wine can therefore be used for today’s feast.
LAST CALL
In the Spiritual Exercises Ignatius provides helpful rules for the “discernment of spirits,” but today you can give that phrase a whole new meaning. Before the first round, adopt the motto of the Jesuits and say, “To St. Ignatius: For the greater glory of God!” Before the second round, say, “To St. Ignatius and the art of being Jesuitical!” Before the third round, paraphrase a memorable line from Pascal and say, “To St. Ignatius and his casuists, the lambs of God who take away the sins of the world!
