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For the purposes of the new edition, every poem has been assigned a unique short title. The original short titles, taken eclectically from a number of sources, are retained as alternative short titles.
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CSM Number : 128
Short name: The Peasant who Placed a Host in a Beehive Alternative: Hostia in alvearium proiecta
Incipit: Tan muit’ é con Jesu-Cristo
Refrain: Tan muit’ é con Jesu-Cristo/ Santa Maria juntada/ que u quer que a el achen/ ela con el é achada.
Summary of narrative
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Setting: Flanders Protagonist(s): a peasant

A peasant wanted to keep bees to make wax and honey.

He consulted a fortune-teller to find out how to obtain some bees. She told him to go to communion to obtain a consecrated host. She instructed him not to swallow the wafer, but to place it in a beehive.

He did as she had instructed, but later, when he opened the hive and looked inside, he saw the Virgin Mary, holding the infant Christ in her arms.

The peasant ran to the church to fetch the priest. The priest, seeing the Virgin in the beehive, convened a council to decide what to do. They resolved to bring the Virgin back to church in a procession. When they went to fetch her, she emitted a fragrance sweeter than lilies, violets or rosewater.

The people carried the beehive into the church and placed it on the altar. They recited the breviary all day and night.

The next day, when the priest was saying mass, he looked into the beehive and found nothing but a sacred host.

Metrical data
Stanza: 15' 15' 15' 15' Refrain: 15' 15'
No. of Stanzas: 13
Rhyme scheme: AA | bbba Zejel: Yes
MS locations:
T128, E128
Poncelet reference
Alius quidam ruricola, dum ad cuiusdam sortiarii sibilos (65)
Keywords
beehive, bees, breviary, Eucharist, fortune-teller, fragrance, honey , host, image (of Virgin Mary), mass, peasant, procession
Discography
Click HERE for a list of recordings of this poem
Miracle Collection
BITAGAP ID
3845
Bibliography
Cantigas de Santa Maria do rei don Alfonso
Alfonso X , o Sábio
La vida conventual feminina en la Edad Media castellana: poder, misticismo y prácticas devocionales en las Cantigas de Santa María
Álvarez Díaz, Cristina
Un recull de miracles de Santa Maria, procedent de Ripoll, i les Cantigues d’Alfons el Savi
Baraut i Obiols, Cebrià
Sources of the Cantigas of Alfonso el Sabio [AC]
Dexter, Elise Forsythe
Fuentes germánicas en las ’Cantigas de Santa Maria’ de Alfonso X el Sabio
Ferreiro Alemparte, Jaime
A Note on King Alfonso’s Use of Popular Themes in his Cantigas
Keller, John Esten
Itinéraire espagnol du conte médiéval (VIIIs-XVs)
Marsan, Rameline E.
O Livro dos Milagres da Bem-aventurada Virgem Maria
Martins, Mário
Cantigas de Santa Maria e cancioneiros galaico-portugueses
Martins, Mário
Fonti e contesti dei miracoli eucaristici delle Cantigas de Santa María 128 e 208
Negri, Manuel
De música y métrica gallegas
Ribera y Tarragó, Julián
Textos de literatura portuguesa. I: Afonso X, o Sábio
Rodrigues Lapa, Manuel
Las Cantigas del Rey Sabio
Valera, Juan