Why is St Vincent the wine growers’ patron saint ?

Born in Spain, St Vincent was deacon of Saragossa in the early fourth century. By order of the Roman prefect Dacian, he was martyred in Valencia, dying under torture on the 22nd of January 304.
If the true reason why St Vincent should be honoured by wine growers remains shrouded in mystery, there is no shortage of theories…It could simply be due to the first three letters of his name : “vin”.

he 22nd of January, St Vincent’s Day, generally falls between the vine’s dormant winter state and the first appearance of new growth (“upon St Vincent’s Day, winter begins anew or goes away”), the time when pruning used to begin.

Vincent could equally be interpreted as “Vin sang”, that is “the blood of the wine”.

Others say that it is only fitting that a saint whose martyred body was crushed like grapes in the press and who in sacrificing his own blood to be united with Christ on the Cross offered the supreme libation, should be the patron saint of wine growers.

Unless Vincent owes his special status to his religious office, since the deacon pours the wine, the blood of the vine and soil, from cruet into chalice, where, by the Consecration, it is transformed into the very blood of the Man-God.

Or perhaps it was because St Vincent was chosen to be the Burgundians’ patron at the same time as St Martin became patron saint of the Franks.

Lastly, legend has it that Vincent once stopped by the edge of a vineyard to talk with the men working there and while he was at it, his donkey nibbled at the young vine shoots. Come the next harvest, it was discovered that the vine stock that had been browsed had produced more fruit than all the others. St Vincent’s donkey had invented the art of vine pruning.