Tonight I shall make fresh pesto for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross… 3rd anniversary of Summorum Pontificum going into force.
I found this on Vultus Christi:
The aromatic herb, basil (Ocimum basilicum) has long been associated with the Holy Cross.
Etymologically, it is related to basileios, the Greek word for king. [Great connection!]
According to a pious legend, the Empress Saint Helena found the location of the True Cross by digging for it under a colony of basil. Basil plants were reputed to have sprung up at the foot of the Cross where fell the Precious Blood of Christ and the tears of the Mother of Sorrows.
A sprig of basil was said to have been found growing from the wood of the True Cross.
On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross it is customary in the East to rest the Holy Cross on a bed of basil before presenting it to the veneration of the faithful.Also, from the practice in some areas of strewing branches of basil before church communion rails, it came to be known as Holy Communion Plant Blessed basil leaf can be arranged in a bouquet at the foot of the crucifix; the dried leaves can also be used by the faithful as a sacramental.
V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.Let us pray.
Almighty and merciful God,
deign, we beseech You, to bless
Your creature, this aromatic basil leaf. +
Even as it delights our senses,
may it recall for us the triumph of Christ, our Crucified King
and the power of His Precious Blood
to purify and preserve us from evil
so that, planted beneath His Cross,
we may flourish to Your glory
and spread abroad the fragrance of His sacrifice.
Who is Lord forever and ever.R. Amen.
The bouquets of basil leaf are sprinkled with Holy Water.
Here is the entry, with my translation, in the Martyrologium Romanum for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross:
Festum exaltationis Sanctae Crucis, quae, postridie dedicationis basilicae Resurrectionis super sepulcrum Christi erectae, exaltatur et honoratur, sicut victoriae eius paschalis tropaeum et signum in caelo appariturum, alterum adventum eius iam universis praenuntians.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which, the day after the dedication of the Basilica of the Resurrection raised over the tomb of Christ, is exalted and honored, in the manner of a memorial of His paschal victory and the sign which is to appear in the sky, already announcing in advance His second coming to all.
Our wonderful Lewis & Short says that a tropaeum is "a sign and memorial of victory, a trophy; orig. a trunk of a tree, on which were fixed the arms, shields, helmets, etc., taken from the enemy; afterwards made of stone and ornamented in the same manner". So, a tropaeum is a kind of war memorial.
To my mind there are echoes here of the magnificent hymn of Venantius Fortunatus, the Vexilla Regis prodeunt …
Vexilla regis prodeunt,
fulget crucis mysterium,
quo carne carnis conditor
suspensus est patibulo.
I think there is also a "once and future" reference to the vision Constantine had of the Cross before his victory over Maxentius. Constantine would later build the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchur. The future dimension is, of course, the appearance of the Lord in the East at the Second Coming (a great reason to celebrate Mass ad orientem).
I am pleased to have a fragment of the Holy Cross in my chapel.
(Any references to basil in this post and similarity to digital hamsters on the sidebar are purely coincidental.)
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God Bless you, Fr. This news is smashing. I grow my own Basil and make my own Pesto and I am emailing this to all my friends and family. This post is so charming and edifying.
O Lord, save your people
and bless your inheritance.
Grant victory to our country over its enemies,
and preserve your community
by the power of Your Cross.
(Apolytikion of the Holy Cross, Soson Kyrie)
Also, see a beautiful icon: http://byztex.blogspot.com/2010/09/universal-exaltation-of-precious-and.html
Seeing the connection between basil and the Greek word for king, I can’t help but wonder if Tolkien might have had this tradition/legend about basil in mind when he had Aragorn using athelas (kingsfoil) leaves to heal the wounded after the great battle. If so, it’s yet another thread of Catholicism hidden in Lord of the Rings.
Pesto is a wonderful idea for tonight’s dinner, Thank you. We have our small group coming for dinner and discussion tonight. Pesto will be a great addition.
Basil’s cousin is visible in IE, but SOB…not…in…Firefox..sob…
Fr, I am interested in knowing how you make pesto. If it doesn’t trouble you too much, please share.
Thank you very much for the elegant tie-ins, Father Z. My basil is getting seedy, but I hope I still have enough for pesto tonight. I make my favorite kind with walnuts instead of pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, salt, olive oil, and, of course, fresh basil. I know of a few variations. I guess pine nuts are more “correct” than walnuts, but 1) they’re expensive, and 2) they’re harder to get.
Next time you get to the Kalamazoo area, you might enjoy a trek to the River Lake Inn in Colon (S.& E. of Kzo.). They’re way out in the county and specialize in attracting birds, especially bluebirds, hummingbirds, and finches. I was there with a friend on Sunday and found that they also have a butterfly garden–complete with copious borders of purple basil. You’d have to come soon to enjoy this year’s display. Wish you could. Oh, well, maybe next year.
This is so cool, the ‘connection’ of basil plants to the Cross!
The wonderful things one learns on this blog-thank you, Father Z!
I’ll have to see if I have some basil at home. Perhaps I can put it in pasta!
A couple of years ago I read a book about Byzantium and I was inspired to attend an Orthodox church in my town. It was the feast of the Holy Cross and the priest gave a moving homily and then processed around the church with the ‘bouquet’ of basil (and the crucifix). How rich.
Tremendous! I was just thinking this morning it was about time to harvest my 3 foot tall basil plants. There’s a little chill in the air…
Pesto tonight for sure!
Yep, it was chilly this morning, and the basil here is about to fall over. Time for pesto! I think I have some pine nuts in the fridge . . . .
Here are two photos of what this all looks like at my parish:
http://clericalreform.blogspot.com/2010/09/feast-of-triumph-of-cross.html
Pretty good for a country parish! I had to borrow the relic from some good sisters in another parish. They have at least seven of these relics, so they let me borrow one each year. I love the look on the faces of the children when they are immediately silenced by something so amazing.
We had a pious Romanian man living close to our Greek Orthodox monastery in Hayesville, Ohio, and each year on today’s Feast, he would bring us literally a truckload of Basil. We put basil boquets at the foot of the Cross, we put enormous basil bouquets in elaborate vases in practically every room of the monastery (bathrooms and laundryroom excepted), and the priest used bunches of basil as the asperges for the Holy Water in Church and around the monastery during the Procession (during which we are also fortunate to have a relic of the Cross). For about a week, there was just this heavenly fragrance of basil everywhere. The herb has a bit of a sharpness or bitterness to the smell, but is still pleasant for all that… a sort of “sense-cleansing” smell. A wonderful corrolary to the Cross!
Fr. Z, do you have the Latin for that benediction of basil? I didn’t know the Latin rites also had this custom! I never came across it in our Sarum books, anyway; it’s nice to find a Latin blessing for the herb.
I couldn’t help but notice, Father, that you left “universis” out of your translation of the Martyrology. Should it not be something like: ‘already announcing to all in advance His second coming’?
Of course basil is connected to the Cross – one of Pilate’s inscriptions (usually lost in images) was INBI – with βασιλευς.
Salutationes scribis etiam omnibus..
But (possibly) on the down-side…? One of my Shakespeare students once brought a – curious? far-fetched? wacky? – article to my attention, where someone had come up with a reference to sniffing basil as a cause of the generation of scorpions within the skull (yuck!), connecting it with Macbeth’s “O, full of scorpions [...]” remark to lady M. Abusus usum non tollet?
Thanks to you, Father, we risked it, in tonight’s penna rigate sauce (including – ahem – also a handy organic basil boullion cube) – so far so good…
I decided this morning to make my Pistou Soup for supper tonight. It’s more a take-off of a Provencal recipe than Italian, but it does feature a variety of basil pesto which will use up a bit of my seedy basil.
I had no idea that my choice was so timely!
Within a couple minutes I just ran into, Primo, an article about a doctoral dissertation based on evidence from 10,000 children born between 2000 and 2005 with new evidence about how good a ‘Mediterranean diet’ was for both unborn children and their mothers! (though the article was too short to single out the basil by name…), and, Secundo, someone passing on a recipe from Simon Hopkinson for tomato salad (8 tomatoes, sliced, for 4 people) with creamy basil dressing (whisk 3 tbl. white wine vinegar, 4 tbl. warm water, salt & pepper together, add 2/3 cup whipping cream , 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of sugar, and a small buch of basil, snibbled) – admittedly, the dissertation article did not have space to mention the whipped cream, either… together with the suggestion to mix fresh sliced tomatoes through whipped potatoes together with a bit of chives, or lemon thyme or lovage (or basil?!) and some bacon. (Is this box-com prompted by the postprandial festal Amaretto? non solus, sed etiam….).
I made pesto tonight. YUM.
YUM!
Venerator,
That may have some connection with that old tale of Isabella and the Pot of Basil (Holman Hunt got it from Keats, who got it from Boccaccio).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f5/Basilpot.jpg/365px-Basilpot.jpg
This was our first year trying a garden in the spot that used to be occupied by a maple tree dangerously close to the house, and of all the things we planted, the basil (“Genovese” cultivar) was the most spectacular. We wound up with eleven huge plants, and have been enjoying it all summer long. Tonight we had ravioli with pesto, and sautéed mushrooms and cherry tomatoes (the other spectacular producer in the garden).
I have a basil plant in a small pot that was purchased at a local farmer’s market. Unfortunately, it has been drooping of late, probably because it does not get enough sun. We live in an apartment/townhouse whose windows all face north. The leaves still taste good, however, and we love to make basil and tomato sandwiches on Italian or French bread. I didn’t know that basil had a connection to the Holy Cross, however!
Fr, I am interested in knowing how you make pesto. If it doesn’t trouble you too much, please share.
The good Father is a much better cook than am I but I make a mean Pesto:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/05/sunday-supper-3/
scroll down for recipe