The blessing of St. John's wine on December 27 has a long tradition, and the St. John's Minne (wine) has been documented since the 10th century. Especially in Eastern Styria, this custom is still maintained today. But also, in the Styrian Salzkammergut, for example in Altaussee, the Johannesminne is drunk when a family member says goodbye to the household, in case of illness and at weddings.
Blessing of St. John's Wine in Frauenberg 2021
December 27th has always been a very special day in our family: St. John's Day ("Hanstag")! After this day was the name day both my father Johann and my grandmother Johanna, it was held particularly in honour. For many people, the custom of celebrating the memorial day of their own patron saint has been forgotten. Especially in recent decades, it has receded more and more into the background in favor of the birthday, even though the name day has been of great importance for centuries – the birthday, on the other hand, had little to no meaning.
In the afternoon of this day of midwinter, we visited my father's parents' farm and celebrated their special day together in the old tradition, and also remembered our deceased relatives. My grandmother held the wine bottle in her hands full of promise for a while before the special moment of opening came. There was an unspoken solemnity inherent in it, which I still remember well. After that, it got fun!
While the adults celebrated in the living room, as a child I walked through the house, where the cowhides of the cattle that were particularly dear to my grandparents hung on the walls. I stroked the fur, while my uncle told me the names of the cows and bulls and stories about them when they were still alive. He talked about their characters and my imagination really bloomed...
I myself took over the custom from my grandparents and also go every year with the children to the St. John's wine blessing. The blessed bottles are marked with a rubber ring (too many bottles have festive bows on them at Christmas time, so there would be a risk of confusion)! I always give away a bottle to my over 90-year-old grandparents, the rest is drunk with dear friends or family on special occasions.
From the History Bible Vorauer Volksbibel 1467 (Vorau Cod. 273, Vorau Abbey [current owner], digital facsimile)*
John the Evangelist
December 27 is the feast day of the Apostle John, son of Zebedee, who, according to the testimony of the New Testament, was a disciple of Jesus Christ. John is one of Jesus' favorite disciples, he sat next to him at the Last Supper and was the only Apostle under the cross. According to early church tradition, John is considered the author of the fourth Gospel, three letters and the Secret Revelation.
Aguila de S. Juan Iglesia de San Manuel y San Benito (Madrid)
His evangelist symbol is the eagle. St. John the Evangelist is the patron saint against poisoning, for good harvest and friendship, the sculptor, printer, painter, writer, theologian and winemaker. On his feast day, St. John's wine blessings traditionally take place in many churches in Styria.
St. John's Wine, so-called "Hanswein"
According to the 13th-century Legenda Aurea, a priest at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus served the apostle with poisoned wine on the pretext that he would become a Christian if John drank the wine safely. John made a cross over the vessel, whereupon the poison escaped in the form of a snake. This is why this saint in the church depictions carries a chalice from which a little snake is tongued out, and the acolyte said at the Benediction of the wine: “We call upon you, before whose name the snake flees, the dragon flees, the viper sleeps and the poisonous toad dies in her anger."
El Greco: John the Evangelist, around 1600, in the National Museum del Prado in Madrid
In old times, the father of the house that day drained some wine from every barrel in the cellar, brought it to the altar, sprinkled it with holy water, and poured it back into his barrels at home; then for the whole of the following year he would not stand out, and from each he could serve his departing guest St. John's wine. Before that, the wanderer, wherever he stopped, had to feast on a good drink, which gave him strength for the journey. If the guest had already bid farewell on all sides and left the inn, the landlord came to meet him again outside with the fare-well drink; he poured from two bottles of red and white wine simultaneously into the bass glass which his daughter held out to him; only when the guest had emptied this drink to the end, the wish of a happy journey could come true. In the country churches, the priest handed out some jugs after Mass, everyone present should have a good drink.
The Johannesminne (St. John's wine) has been documented since the 10th century, and drinking Minne (wine) was an old and widespread custom. On the days of the saints of Minne such as John the Evangelist, wine was blessed and drunk in honor of the saints (sant Johans minne). People hoped that the drink would help them in difficult life situations and that they would have a good death, so it was given to the dying and those sentenced to death. The mine was supposed to protect against sorcery, poisoning, drowning and lightning, make men strong and women beautiful. It was medicine, a farewell drink, a bridal blessing, a means of protection for wine and agriculture.
In addition to the Evangelist John, other Saints of Minne were the archmartyr Stephen as well as Gertrud, Martin, Michael, Sebastian, Ulrich and Urban. In the High Middle Ages, they were among the most popular patron saints. The Stephansminne has been verified since Carolingian times, the 26th of December, the day of the holy martyr Stephen, was celebrated with an ecclesiastical wine donation, whereby the priest of the Mass was prescribed to offer the wine goblet to the assembled with the words: "Bibe fortitudinem St. Stephani". It was regarded by the dying as food for the way, which is known, among other things, from the mother of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). After the blessing of St. John's wine on December 27, the priest served the wine at the agape with the words "Drink the love of St. John". Gertrudenminne (sant Gêrtrûde minne) was drunk as a farewell and reconciliation. A ballad from the 14th century tells that Gertrude – herself a minstrel saint – saved a knight who had dedicated his soul to the devil by handing him St. John's Minne.
St. John's wine is said to have special powers. It should not only make the fine wines even better, but also protect the house and farm of the winegrowers from all sorts of dangers and calamities. The blessed wine used to be taken as medicine for weakness attacks and illnesses. This festive day was also something special for children. It was the only day of the year when they were allowed to drink wine. In many parishes it is still customary today to bring one or more bottles of wine to the parish church and have it blessed. Today, however, the wine is more likely to be opened on special occasions, such as family celebrations, and no longer taken as medicine. In some parishes, the wine is also served directly after the service during an agape.
Minne
The term Minne still ties in with the original meaning of Minne in the sense of 'memory', 'keepsake' (Minne and Law). In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, this was understood to mean the custom of mutual drinking (drinking & toasting to someone or something) in honor of a saint, with an older cultic connection (ancestor and death cult or joint celebration of the living with the dead or gods) being assumed. In Norse mythology, a special power and protective effect is ascribed to drinking Minne.
According to Pierer's Univeral-Lexkikon (4th edition 1857–1865) Minne is "originally so v.w. memory, keepsake; With the old Germans it was the custom at sacrifices and feasts to commemorate the gods or deceased comrades with a cup, which was called drinking Minne. After the acceptance of Christianity, instead of Wuotan, Donar, etc., the M. Christi, Maria and the saints, but especially the M. of the Apostle John or St. Gertrude were drunk.”
Today's conception of medieval, courtly love: a pair of lovers on p. 249v of the Heidelberger Manesse
Drinking Minne as a memory drink
If wine was indispensable in the church for the sake of the Lord's Supper, it played a role there for other reasons. As can be read in the Real Encyclopedia for the Educated Estates of 1846, the German heathen had honored his gods and popular heroes by drinking, but the newly converted German Christian drank on that Holy Remembrance, which won him admiration by tests of spiritual or physical strength; and the Church, in her tolerance, included this so-called ministry drinking in her rituals, after centuries of trying in vain to suppress it. No sooner did the bishops succeed in limiting the number of saints whose memory or minne one drank. For a long time in the Netherlands the St. Gaerteminne or Gertrudsminne was preserved, in the north the Kanuts or Eriksminne, elsewhere the Ulriksminne, the Martins-, Stephans-, Michaelis- and Nikolaustrunk, and up to our days the Johannisminne exists.
Double-headed cup for Minne
Special drinking cups were made for drinking minne, so-called "double(s) pecher". These are containers on which a smaller, similarly shaped one was placed, which formed a "double head" from the "head". A bulbous goblet with a twisted handle on the side rises above one foot, the second goblet placed over it as a lid has a similarly designed foot, which also serves as a handle for the lid. The burlwood vessels are of considerable size, and the very hard and dense material was obtained from the intergrowths or rootstocks of various deciduous trees. Double-headed beakers only occur in German-speaking countries, especially in southern Germany. They appear in the 13th century and have remained the same in their core form for over four hundred years. Members of all classes, from emperors to commoners, used them for celebrations or boisterous celebrations. Bridal couples and their guests drank from the double head. The background to their use is the ancient custom of drinking minne. On certain holidays, consecrated wine was served to drink in honor of the respective saint. The miraculous effect of Minne was enhanced when the wood came from olive trees in the Holy Land. Although drinking Minne was hardly promoted by the church, as it often degenerated into coarse drinking celebrations, it was one of the most popular and common German customs in the 15th and 16th centuries. However, the Ambraser vessels made of burl wood show no traces of use and were probably standing never in practical use.
Double head (currently on display: Schloss Ambras Innsbruck Unterschloss, Kunstkammer;
1st half of the 16th century; Measurements: H. 33.3 cm, dia. Lip 12.4 cm or H. 19.8 cm, dia. lip 14.3 cm)
Etymology of the term 'Minne'
Minne as an old German word denoted what we call love, while this word, opposed to suffering, was usually used in its original sense of joy and lust. As the Real Encyclopaedia for the educated classes of 1846 also shows, according to the "reverence that women have enjoyed among the German peoples from the earliest times, love was also understood by the Germans in a nobler, more spiritual sense than This was the case with Greeks and Romans with love of the sexes in general, and through the influence of chivalry this conception increased even more to the point of enthusiasm."
In Old Norse, the word minni existed in a different meaning, namely as "memory", "souvenir". Even in today's Icelandic language, minni means "memory". This meaning belongs to the Indo-European root *men- "to think", which is still contained in the verb warn in German. Also in Middle High German minne stands for "friendly commemoration, remembrance". In the meaning "Minne drink" it is still known today as a memory or farewell drink.
Feat-scene from the TV series "Vikings"
Therefore, the drink that was made according to Germanic custom in memory of an absent or deceased at a festive meal, or in honor of a god at the sacrifice, was itself called Minne.
* The Vorauer Volksbibel from 1467 belongs to the literary genre of the German-language historical Bibles of the late Middle Ages and contains the texts of the Christian Bible in Bavarian-Austrian dialect, illustrated with 559 colored pen drawings and supplemented by the description of historical events.
Historical Bibles were used in the late Middle Ages to convey the spiritual foundations of Christianity and to bring them closer to the people. The Bible texts were freely edited in the language of the people and supplemented by contemporary historical events. It is part of the DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE "Memory of the World"/"Memory of Mankind".
Source: https://www.unesco.at/kommunikation/dokumentenerbe/memory-of-austria/verzeichnis/detail/article/vorauer-volksbibel
Other Sources:
https://austria-forum.org/af/Wissenssammlungen/ABC_zur_Volkskunde_%C3%96sterreichs/Johannes_Evangelist%2C_hl.
https://austria-forum.org/af/Wissenssammlungen/ABC_zur_Volkskunde_%C3%96sterreichs/Minneheilige
https://www.hrgdigital.de/id/minnetrinken/stichwort.html
https://www.khm.at/objektdb/detail/90952/
https://www.katholische-kirche-steiermark.at/pfarre/6276/gallery/gallery/7409.html
http://www.lexikus.de/bibliothek/Geschichte-des-Weins-und-der-Trinkgelage/03-Das-Minnetrinken
Real Encyklopädie für die gebildeten Stände von 1846
Grenzboten 1864. Nr. 52
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