Would you like a beer?

International Beer Day? Yes, it's here on the first Friday of August, kicking off one of the hottest months of the year. Along with July and September, it can also bring spiritual delights to lovers of this refreshing beverage and collectors of artifacts related to it, such as labels, capsules, glasses, or bottles. Yes, spiritual delights too, because one can pray while drinking beer in moderation. May the masters of spirituality forgive me, but this is what I can conclude when I travel back in time and look at its long history, even knowing that it is filled with uncertainties and legendary narratives. Today, beer is a common drink, the most consumed alcoholic beverage in Portugal, and it's there on the tables of restaurants, bars, and terraces for eating and socializing, served in vertical glasses or in rounded mugs of various shapes that even seem like art and reflect local customs, particularly in lands where it has more pronounced traditions. In the hot summer months, it takes on a special flavor and the body demands it, fresh and colorful, to soothe the heat of the weather, quench thirst and provide moments of human conviviality that will be even richer if the flavors of the appreciated liquid are combined with a dusting of human history where we can come across a group of Saints to whom beer owes a lot.

That's right: although not well known in our culture , the history of beer, along with opening doors to food and social, economic, political, and cultural development, passes through the lives of many saints, some of whom are invoked as patron saints of brewers or who lend their names to beers, whether industrial, local, or craft, which constitute a notable trend in Europe in the 21st century. And among these saints, there is one who well deserves to be remembered. But let's go back to the beginning, to times long gone.

Beer has a long history, dating back thousands of years. Some experts say that beer, a drink we usually associate with men, was discovered by women in ancient Mesopotamia, several millennia before our era. As has so often happened in human history, it was a chance discovery, cleverly exploited by women to satisfy dietary needs. Responsible for harvesting and processing grains, they happened to observe that the mixture of grains, water, and herbs was fermenting. From observation came testing and experimentation. And from testing and experimentation came the discovery that this mixture transformed into a pleasant beverage that produced a feeling of well-being. And from this verification came its development with new experiments, and this liquid, which, besides being nutritious, also cheered the spirit, became widespread. Thus, it is no surprise that, as experts tell us, the production and marketing of beer remained the responsibility of women for a long time. "He was a wise man who invented beer." The phrase is plastered all over today's media as if it had sprung from the mind of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato [5th/4th century BC], but I don't know if it's true. I don't recall ever encountering the phrase in any Platonic work, but in any case, if it holds true in the wisdom that the discovery of beer might imply, the same cannot be said of the expression "wise man," if it is true that the discovery and its initial development are due to women. "Wise woman," therefore, and not "Wise man." Honor and glory be given to the woman with an enthusiastic greeting of thanks and healthy conviviality.

As is common knowledge, the Catholic Church 's "Rituale Romanum" (Roman Ritual) contains a specific section for blessing objects of common use. Most readers will have been present at some point in which a priest blesses something, whether simple and merely symbolic, such as a schoolboy's briefcase, or complex, such as a house, a monument, an airplane, a boat, or the cornerstone of an institutional building. What few may know is that the Roman Ritual also includes a blessing for beer.

The prayer for the blessing of beer reads as follows: "Benedict, O Lord, the creatures of the cerevisiae, which from the beginning were worthy to produce fruit, are made to serve as a salutary remedy for the human race, and are made to serve by invocation of your holy name; but, as from the beginning of the drink, the body is sanitized, and the animals are made to persevere. Per Christum Dominum nostrum." The translation is intuitively easy, but it is here for those who have never dealt with classical studies, which are sorely lacking in our schools: "Bless, O Lord, this creature, beer, which you have deigned to produce from the richness of the grain, that it may be a salutary remedy for the human race. Grant also that, through the invocation of your holy name, whoever drinks it may receive health of body and strength of soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen." The prayer invokes the goodness of the cereal grain from which it is made as a gift of God's creation that can be a salutary medicine for the human race, both for the health of the body and for the care and strength of the soul. With the expansion of the Empire, Roman soldiers contributed to the spread throughout Europe of the production and consumption of beer, "cerevisia" or "cervisia," a word that paid homage to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and fertility. And "cerevisia" remained in Iberia as "cerveja" in Portuguese, "cerveza" in Spanish, "cervexa" in Galician, and "cervesa" in Catalan, in contrast to other European languages where terms with other origins appear, such as "bière" in French, "beer" in English, "bier" in German, and "birra" in Italian. Linguists can explain these subtleties of languages. We cannot know when this prayer blessing the beer was introduced into the "Rituale Romanum," but it is known that in the Middle Ages, Catholic monasteries became notable brewing centers for many centuries. Whether for food self-sufficiency or for social support and hospitality to travelers and pilgrims, the monasteries, using various herbs and wild fruits, were the great experimenters in production techniques. Naturally, the brewing activity and the consumption of this precious beverage were preceded and accompanied by prayer. A sort of spontaneous ritual before the formality of a Roman Ritual. As you know, beer today is the result of the combination of four main basic ingredients: malt, water, hops, and yeast. The use of hops constituted a kind of revolution in beer production. Although it may have been used in earlier centuries, particularly in Bohemia and German Bavaria, the first reference to the preservative and flavoring properties of hops appears in the works of Saint Hildegard of Bingen [1098-1179], a German Benedictine nun, talented naturalist, mystic, and theologian, whom Pope Benedict XVI, reaffirming her sanctity, proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. Her liturgical feast day is September 17. But, in addition to Saint Hildegard, other brewer saints appear in the liturgical calendar. Saint Columban [540-615], an Irish monk with a liturgical feast day on November 23, to whom this humorous prayer is attributed: "I pray that I may die in the alehouse; wet my lips with beer as I expire; so that when the choir of angels arrives, they will say: 'God be gracious to this drinker.'" Saint Arnulf of Metz [580-640], to whom the following phrase is attributed: "It was from the sweat of men and the love of God that beer came into the world." His feast day is July 18th. Saint Wenceslaus [907-929], patron saint of Bohemia – Czech Republic – whose feast day is September 28th. Saint Arnold of Soissons [1040-1087], of Belgian origin, known as the patron saint of hop pickers and brewers in Belgium, whose feast day is August 14th. In the company of so many brewing saints celebrated in the hot summer months, how about a beer, reader? Then, here's to you. Here's to us. And may the brewing saints and Saint Hildegard accompany us with a heavenly blessing.

Guarda , July 28, 2025

Antonio Salvado Morgado

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