www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Honey - truly a miracle healing tool from God

I use honey a lot for many diffent things including helping with the pain and inflamation in my legs. So I thought someone might be interested in the uses of honey for healing.

http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/november/Molan/honey-as-topical-agent.html

My wife calls me honey and it's amazing how helpful I am. I notice the reverse is also true. When I call her honey and I mean it she is very kind and helpful to me.

I do endorse "honey" as well.

Dan Lauffer

Very funny Dan, very funny!

Dear Prof. Dan:

One of these days, you should try the "other" honey and experience the exquisite taste of this heavenly nectar!

Just don't be a smart-aleck and insist upon your wife that it's sweeter than her!

Since becoming diabetic, I have substituted sugar, natural or artificial, with "honey" in all things!

Amado

Dear Friends,

As the son of a beekeeper and as someone who spent most of his younger years being just a hive of activity, I can attest that honey is truly a wonderful gift from God!

Even as a diabetic, I find that honey, once in a while, can be well processed by my system (better than sugar, any way).

Bee pollen is also excellent as a means of getting rid of allergies. My father (+memory eternal!) used to make all sorts of ugly-smelling concoctions with bee products (and vinegar) that were very good for colds et al.

Dad developed his own honey jar label and mom sold the business last year.

I was walking downtown a few weeks back and went into a health food store.

As I looked at the shelves, I spotted a few old jars of dad's honey with the familiar label that I hadn't seen for a few years.

I couldn't believe they still had them after all this time. It was like touching one's past . . .

Dad also called me "Alex" after St Alexius the Man of God on whose feast-day in March Eastern European beekeepers begin the honey season.

Sniff . . .

A stinging indictment . . .

Alex

Dear Alex:

It might please you to know that it has been medically proven that honey IS always better than table sugar (raw, brown, whitened, or artificial) for T2 diabetics like us due to its fructose component!

It has been determined that fructose has the highest concentration (38%) among the at least 5 "sugar" forms in honey!

This is a more "stinging indictment!"

Amado

Dear Amado,

Sweet!

Alex

I do prefer honey but not with peanut butter because then the peanut butter doesn't stick so well to the roof of my mouth where it can linger for hours. :p

As far an human honeys go, does anyone have a honey dew list like me?

Honey do list for Thursday: (located on the refrigerator)

Honey do....take out the garbage for pick up.

Honey do...the dishes after breakfast.

Honey do...clean the pine cones off the porch.

Honey do...go to the post office to pick up the mail.

Honey do...empty honey kitties' litter boxes.

Honey do...go all the way around the deck getting spider webs cleaned up.

Honey do...give the other honey a foot massage.



Porter aka Mary Jo

I love the milk with honey. Especially honey from lime tree flowers, sunflower, acacia or wild flowers.
Also I use to take royal jelly (from bees), propolis or seldom polen.
Honey is a gift from God and very good for our health. All with measure.

Marian

There is a marvelous book (been around since 2002)titled "The Secret Life of Bees," by Sue Monk Kidd (paperback available at Amazon.com and in the libraries) in which beekeping AND an icon of the Mother of God play important parts. What more could you ask? In addition to the story line, I found the prose to be exquisite.

Dear Lory,

I once volunteered to work with 120 hives in a Studite Monastery up here!

It was the most beautiful apiary/bee-yard I've ever seen, with a gate etc. and its own outdoor icon-corner.

I once wrote an article for our beekeeping journal on the patron saints of bees and they are:

St John the Baptist

Sts Savvaty and Zosimas Solovetsky (why, I don't know, but they are!)

In Romania, it is St Job the Much-Suffering since he suffered from biting itches like bee-stings!

In Italy, it is St Ambrose (as a child, his parents saw bees go in and out of his mouth)

Among the Celts, it is St Gobnet of Ballyvourney (bees still lodge in her shrine and have attacked shrine-robbers!) and St Modomnoc who first brought a swarm of bees from Britain to Ireland.

St Basil the Great and the Cappadocian Fathers are called "Bees of the Lord" in the liturgical services and so are invoked as patrons of beekeepers.

Also, St Nicholas and it is traditional to give gifts of honey on his feast-day to children - a tradition that candy has replaced.

St Peter the Apostle is the patron of summer in Eastern Europe and also a protector of the bees.

My father had bees in the area that the North American Jesuit Martyrs preached and so their image has always adorned our bee-icon corners.

Also, St Bernard of Clairvaux is invoked as a patron of bees in Western Europe, especially among the Benedictines.

St Francis of Assisi is likewise considered a patron of bees and of nature - whenever he uttered the Divine Name of "Jesus" he would stop, put out his tongue and lick his lips to "collect all the sweetness that bursts to overflowing in one's mouth whenever we pronouce, with reverence and devotion, the Name of our Lord Jesus."

The symbol of the Honey-bee in Christian art represents the Mother of God herself Who gave us the Divine Sweetness of OLGS Jesus Christ, Her Son!

The Feast of August 1st, the first "feast of the Honey Saviour" in August is the feast of beekeepers as honey is blessed in church at that time, as well as on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

That is the Administrator's birthday - no wonder he is such a sweet fellow!!

Alex

Thank you, Alex for all that info. On the feast of St. Nicholas, it was (is) a tradition to make St. Nicholas cookies using a honey and spice dough (medovniki or mezeskalacs) and either stamping an imprint of St. Nicholas or sticking a paper image of him on the cookie. One dear lady at my parish still makes the cookies for the kids (small and big!)at our parish St. Nicholas pot-luck dinner.

Since you worked with bees, do read the book; you should enjoy it!

Lory

There is also a honey miracle story associated with Mariapocs in Hungary, where the icon of the Mother of God wept. A beekeeper on his way to Mariapoch in pilgrimage to ask for curing of his gout (I think) promised the Theotokos his best hive of bees if he were cured. He got there, was cured, and on his way home began to wonder what the Theotokos would want with his bees, so he decided not to keep his promise.

As he approached his home, he saw his bees in flight away from his land and on to Mariapocs where they attached to the opposite side of the wall than the side that bees normally do (an act against nature).

Thats cool Lory.

Alex thanks for all the cool info.

My husband makes a 'heart wine' that has honey in it, it is wonderful. It uses red wine, parsley, red wine vinegar, and honey.

Dear Lory,

How wonderful - our icon corner in the "honey house" in the woods where dad had his HQ had the icon of Mariapochs in it!

Also, for a number of years, the Jesuit Fathers at the Martyrs' shrine in Midland, Ontario used to call on us to try and remove a swarm of bees that lodged in the upper steeple - directly above the altar!

When dad came to inspect the situation and saw that honey from the nest dripped directly onto the altar, he advised the Jesuits to leave it alone as this was clearly the work of God!

I was back at the Shrine this summer, and I understand the bees STILL make their nest there!

Alex

Dear Pani,

Yes, my father had a number of recipes for all manner of ailments using honey, propolis et al.

Your husband's recipe sounds very potent!

Honey-wine is a very old drink in Europe and in East Slavic countries it was reserved for major Church feasts.

People would boil it hot on the major feasts and the aroma would indicate to people that the day was an important holy-day.

Eastern Slavs would also do things like boil perogies/pyrohy in oil on St Barbara's day (a patron of Kyiv since a portion of her relics were brought to that city long ago). This was to honour her martyrdom by being boiled in oil . . .

Alex

I love all this talk of honey-bees!

My given name (not Talitha) means "honeybee" in Greek! My dad was a beekeeper, but I was not raised Catholic. I was actually named after my uncle's maid. So is it Divine Providence or what that I grew up to not only be Catholic (thanks to the intervention of the Mother of God) but a Greek one at that?

A little honey from local bees is a great way to battle seasonal hayfever. . .

Talitha welcome to the Byzantine Forum. I notice you have made a few posts, but I missed them.

God is so good. His ways are so awesome.

That is totally cool. Reminds me of the place where the snakes come to town. Sounds like your dad learned well from the experience of that man.

The heart wine truly does help with curing the ailments of the body. If anyone wants the recipe I will type it in for them.

Pani Rose

As a child of Irish and Scottish blood, I had always thought that it was the uisce beatha in the "hot toddy" that cured my colds and sore throats. I guess I was wrong.

Brad

Pani Rose,

I would appreciate the formula for the heart wine ! Can't get enough of good stuff...please no cod liver oil .

james

Dear Brad,

I think the uisge beatha or "water of life" had a lot to do with it too!

Did you know that the name "MacBeth" comes from "beatha?"

And that King Macbeth, although villified by the Sassanachs or English, was honoured as a local saint by the Scots?

A number of editions of the St John of Kronstadt press used to carry his name as a potential candidate for full Orthodox canonization under August 15/28 . . .

Alex

Dear Talitha,

Yes, taking a little honey with the local pollen will act to ward off hay fever, much like anti-bodies. One may also take pollen in tablet-form.

Your icon in your avatar is the Slavic Mother of God "Ostra Brama" or of the "spiked fence."

It was enshrined in a chapel on an overpass with spiked iron rods around it.

People would walk underneath it and "break their caps" in honour of the icon.

Our Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko did this and was upset when he saw some proud Polish students refuse to do this.

Later that night, he wrote a few lines about this and said.

"Those Polish students who wouldn't break their hats to the Most Holy Mother of God of Ostra Brama . . . but you can always tell a fool by the way he walks!"

Alex

GUARENTEED 100% COD LIVER OIL FREE!

Health remedies were given to Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, in the twelth century by Christ or his angels. She was declared a prophetiess by Pope Eugenius III along with other church officials. In this particular vision and angel appeared to her and told her about the mixture of herbs called 'Heart Wine.'

"A German doctor writing in the 800s said 1-3 tablespoons of this a day would blow away pains of the heart caused by weather or excitement. He continues not only for slight pain in the heart, but also for cardiac weakness and real heart trouble, this parsley-honey wine will do you a great service, and maybe even bring recovery."
Copied from Miracle Food Cures of the Bible by Reese Dubin, Prentice Hall Press

The wine is made from a good red or white wine.
However, the red seems to have more medicinal purpose. My husband buys the really big bottle of Rianuti Lambrusco (sp).

Red Wine Vinegar
Honey
Parsley

Place these in a well cleaned pot
Use 1 liter - about a quart - of pure wine
Add 2 table spoons of red wine vinegar
10 fresh parsley stems

This is simmered for 10 minutes on low heat. My husbands lets his come to a very light boil. Take care not to let it spill over, because it foams, though he has never really had trouble with that.

Then add 300 grams or about 10 1/2 ounces of honey.
Let it boil again on a low boil for 4 minutes.

While still hot, strain, and place in a bottle that has been throughly cleaned with alcohol. Deacon Stan just places it back in the bottle the wine came from.

He sometimes comes out with more volume than other times and I think that must be the freshness of the parsley because all other factors are the same.

There is a sediment that forms sometimes and it can be eaten with honey.

Whether you use red or white wine the sequence of preparation must remain the same.


This has helped our whole family in different ways. I get a lot of pain in my knees and it helps that knee pain. Our daughter can tell when her sugar gets out of whack and it seems to put her back in order. My dad has had major heart surgery and it really gives him a boost. And needless to say, Deacon Stan - being a mail carrier - really tells the differnce with all of this heat. He has a bunch of folks at work using it too.

With Alex's knowledge of the Heart Wine and it's relation to the feasts of the Church, I am even more encouraged by it.

Hope it helps.

Pani Rose

Alex,

Not to change the subject but your last post reminded me of this book. Didn't know if you had seen it yet or not.

Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare (Hardcover)
by Clare Asquith
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1586483161/002-3804453-6438406?v=glance

Dear Pani,

This sounds like one of several medieval concoctions (that one person I know is now selling under his own patent called "Norfolk Punch").

He found it in the wall of former Benedictine monastery . . .

The monks developed these concoctions to help them with everything from heart pains, to kidney disease and arthritic pains to nervous disorders, insomnia and even calming sexual passion - Norfolk Punch contains about 18 different herbs and spices and tastes like, well, punch.

It is great when served piping hot . . .

As I'm sure the heart wine is too!

To your health!

Alex

Hey Alex,

Where is the 'Honey Saviour' Icon? I was gonna show it to someone!

By the way you have a lovely family crest

Pani Rose

Please note here that unprocessed...IE non-heated, but spun/centrifugally processed is acceptable. The pasteurization process is a bastardization of the natural product, akin to the 'cider' you buy in the store, which is now just apple juice, for they have dictated that it must now be de-naturalized, and if you keep it, it will just sour, and not ferment. (part of the food industry debacle in us..!). As a Ukrainian friend told me , you don't have 'real' food here, just stuff in a box or a can, that looks like the real thing. No wonder there is so much cancer, depression, athasma, etc...and so much obesity. (the new 'victim' status..). OH, I could on, and on, but , we of the hippie generation have been hearing of this for 40+ years. Just a few pennies worth, mik s Bohom