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Cantiga 128 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X
The Peasant who Placed a Host in a BeehiveTan muit’ é con Jesu-Cristo
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.
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