-^24 The Honey-Makers 



over, it is in some places believed that the souls of people 

 leave the world and return to it in the form of bees, —a 

 myth with which we are already familiar in the more 

 eastern lands. 



With its heavenward-striving flight in the realms of light, 

 the bee is a symbol of resurrection. It does not here, as 

 in Greece and Italy, come forth from a dead body, though 

 we are told that Christ has been compared to the sacrificial 

 bull, and the Christians to the bees that came forth from 

 it^ — a figure evidently borrowed from classical literature. 



Peter of Capua called Christ " Apis aetheria," and he is 

 elsewhere denominated, '' Our honey." 



Because of their faith and their good works prominent 

 virgins were credited with the attributes of bees, and Saint 

 Ambrose calls Saint Agnes "Apis argumentosa," This re- 

 calls the name of " Melissa " given to the priestesses of the 

 pagan deities. 



In a painting by Titian of the Virgin Mary the Christ 

 Child is holding a bee in his hand, and the Virgin Mary 

 has been denominated " the honey of the world." 



Thomas of Cantiprat wrote a religious work in which all 

 the Christian virtues are shown to reside in bees. 



But Pater Abraham a Santa Clara in his book compares 

 only the monastic life to the bee-hive, because the bees 

 live as virgins ; and this idea was the fundamental one in the 

 illustrations drawn from bees by many others of the churchly 

 fathers. The bee was very generally a symbol of the 

 greatest purity, and the Immaculate Conception has been 

 compared to the flower from which the bee extracted 

 honey without violating it. 



Herbert said, — 



" Bees work for men, and yet they never bruise 

 Their Master's flower, but leave it, having done, 

 As fair as ever and as fit to use ; 

 So both the flower doth stay and honey run." 



