A statue of St. Gobnait, the patron saint of beekeepers and healers, overlooks a green meadow in County Cork, Ireland. The sixth-century woman, hands folded in prayer, stands atop a stone hive with carved, stone bees. Pilgrims visit her former home on the saint’s feast day, Feb. 11, often to pray for healing.
An angel, the story says, told Gobnait to undertake a journey to find the “place of her resurrection,” meaning, a site where the eternal and physical coexist. Ireland is known for “thin places” where the human spirit can feel completely at home.
Churches and holy wells mark places where Gobnait stopped on her travels. When she came to a spot where nine white deer grazed, as the angel had foretold, she founded a religious community there.
Gobnait, a beekeeper, probably used honey in the healings attributed to her. During the plague, she drew a line in the sand around the village and declared it consecrated ground that sickness couldn’t cross. In another story, when thieves robbed her village, Baile Bhuirne, of its cattle, Gobnait unleashed her bees on the thieves, who then returned the cows. Celtic lore held bees in high esteem, believing the soul leaves the body as a bee or a butterfly.
When Queen Elizabeth died in the fall of 2022, news outlets carried a story about the royal beekeeper, whose job it was to tell the bees of her majesty’s death. The royal beekeeper followed British tradition and informed the bees, and wrapped the hives in black ribbons.
I knew of this tradition. I’d seen an old woodcut that showed a young man seated on a stool, hat in hand, leaning toward a hive. He was breaking the news that the head of the household had died. Some believe failure to do this would offend the bees, who might swarm and leave, or even sicken. Others believe that all news must be relayed to the hives—births, marriages, moves. In some countries, bees are invited to the funeral and offered funeral cakes.
The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that bees were messengers of the gods and goddesses. A swarm should be avoided because a swarm on the move was carrying messages at the bidding of the gods. Ancient Egyptians believed the honeybee was created from the tears of Ra, the sun god. The bee was a messenger from the gods, falling from Ra’s face to the earth, to deliver messages. Pharaohs were buried with vessels of honey, to go with the deceased to the afterlife.
The modern person may rebuff legends of bees who chase thieves, and quaint stories about the need to talk with the bees when the beekeeper dies. But can we appreciate that bees have pushed their way into the human imagination, from primitive times to the sophisticated present, to play a role in rituals, folklore, and songs?
That gives us one more reason to love them.
1000 Reasons to Love Bees 