No Need For Greed and Hunger Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bread

As a princess, Elizabeth frequently took supplies from the royal pantry to feed the hungry. One day she was leaving the castle with an apron full of bread for the poor when she was stopped by her angry husband. Upon opening her apron, the bread had miraculously changed to roses. Seeing this divine protection, her husband was moved to support her charity and help feed the poor.

Also during that Great Famine of 1226 AD, Elizabeth took charge of the royal grain distribution. When the grain ran out, she used her own dowry to buy more and gave away the royal family's personal supply of bread. She also helped build a hospital at the foot of the mountain where her castle stood so that those too weak to climb for food could still receive their daily bread. St. Elizabeth of Hungary was officially declared a saint on May 27, 1235, just four years after her death.

Answer: Salt

In the 13th AD century, salt was "white gold." It wasn't just for seasoning; it was the only way to preserve meat and fish for the winter. When Kinga's father, King Béla IV of Hungary, asked what she wanted as a wedding gift, she didn't ask for gold or jewels. Instead, she asked for salt, because Poland had plenty of resources but lacked its own salt mines at the time. Before going to Poland to meet her groom she threw her engagement ring deep into a mine shaft.

Upon arriving in Poland, she told workers to dig a pit. Shockingly, inside the pit they found salt along with her ring. They saw this is a divine sign. Because of this miracle, Kinga is the patron saint of salt miners as well as the mineral. She was canonized on June 16, 1999, by Pope John Paul II (who was Polish himself).

Answer: Zabaglione

St. Paschal Baylon was a Spanish Franciscan friar who is not only the patron saint of cooks but also the legendary "inventor" of one of Italy's most famous desserts (zabaglione). Living in the late 1500's AD, Paschal was known for his deep compassion for the poor and for women who were struggling with "weak" or "lethargic" husbands. He supposedly suggested an invigorating tonic made of egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine which became zabaglione.

It was said that while Paschal was busy with kitchen chores like peeling vegetables or scrubbing pots, he would fall into deep prayer or even levitate and angels would often appear to aid him in getting his meals completed. He believed that serving others food was a way of serving God. He was canonized on October 16, 1690, by Pope Alexander VIII.

Answer: Fish

St. Neot lived in the 9th century AD near Cornwall, England. A tiny man (only 4 feet/1.2 m tall) he would submerge himself in his cold well every day and pray for hours. In this well, he had three fish. One day an angel instructed Neot that he could take one fish per day for his meal. As long as he took only one, the number of fish in the well would miraculously stay at three the next morning.

One day, his servant caught two fish instead of one and cooked them. Horrified, Neot threw the cooked fish back into the well where they miraculously became alive again. Immediately following his death, local people in Cornwall began venerating him as a saint because of his reputation for extreme holiness and his reported miracles (like the fish). He became the patron saint of fish and fishermen.

Answer: Honey

In the 6th century AD, Abigail fled her home in County Clare in Ireland to escape a family feud. An angel told her to settle where she saw nine white deer. This turned out to be Ballyvourney where she established a convent and a huge apiary (bee yard). The bees not only provided honey but would come to her village's defense, as a threatening swarm, when she prayed.

Abigail also used the honey as medicine. She would treat the sick and injured with it and is even credited with saving her entire district from a local plague by "drawing a line" around the village with her bees that the sickness could not cross. In 1601, Pope Clement VIII officially recognized her and granted a special indulgence to anyone who visited her shrine on her feast day (February 11th).

Answer: Milk

In medieval Ireland, milk, butter, and cheese were important staples that helped sustain the population through the lean winter months. In the 5th century AD, Brigid was a young girl and her chore was milking the cows. She was so moved by the hunger of the poor that she gave away all the milk she had collected. Fearing her mother's reaction, she prayed, and when the pails were checked, they were miraculously overflowing with milk.

Throughout her life, whenever she gave away these dairy products, they would replenish themselves. This led to her being the patron saint of dairy maids, milkmen, and cattle. Almost immediately after her death, her grave became a massive site of pilgrimage and she was grouped with St. Patrick and St. Columba as the "Three Pillars of Ireland".

Answer: Bacon

St. Anthony the Abbot is known as the "Father of Monasticism" but he and his order are also associated with pigs and bacon. St. Anthony lived in Egypt in the 3rd century AD and famously gave away all his worldly inheritance to live a life of solitude and prayer. He had one meal a day in the evening which consisted almost exclusively of bread. He only drank water, and he slept either on the bare ground or on a simple woven mat. His work consisted in making mats which were traded for his very basic needs.

His order was later founded to treat people suffering from "St. Anthony's Fire", a painful skin condition. They raised pigs and locals would feed these animals as an act of charity, and eventually, the pigs were slaughtered to provide meat and lard for the hospital patients. While the lard was a soothing medicine, the extra meat provided bacon and cured pork. When St. Anthony died at the incredible age of 105, his fame was so vast that he was immediately treated as a saint by the early Church.

Answer: Confections

In 4th century AD in Alexandria, Macarius was a successful businessman as a fruit seller and confectioner. The city was the culinary capital of the world, famous for honey-soaked cakes and preserved fruits. He felt there was something missing in his life, though, and decided to give up his lucrative candy trade to live a life of extreme self-denial in the desert. He became famous for his "sugar-free" discipline. He once went seven years eating only raw vegetables.

In medieval theology, the physical sweetness of a pastry was often compared to the "spiritual sweetness" of prayer that Macarius described in his writings. Soon, because of his earlier profession, the guild of confectioners claimed him as their own. After his death, he was widely venerated almost immediately.

Answer: Corn and Grain

St. Walpurga was an 8th-century English princess and abbess who traveled to Germany to help evangelize the region. Legend states that Walpurga was once approached by a mother whose child was dying of hunger. Walpurga handed the child three ears of corn. Miraculously, as the child ate them, they provided the nourishment of a complete harvest and the child was totally cured.

Farmers began to pray to her to protect their crops from "corn spirits" or bad weather. In the German countryside, she became the patron of a successful harvest. She died on February 25, 779 AD, at the Heidenheim monastery where she was Abbess. She was officially recognized as a saint on May 1st, 870 AD, by Pope Hadrian II.

Answer: Apples

In the late 200's AD, Dorothy was a young Christian woman in modern-day Turkey during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian. On the way to her execution for not recognizing the Roman gods, a young lawyer named Theophilus mockingly called out to her, asking her to send him fruits and roses (even though it was winter).

Just before Dorothy was beheaded, an angel appeared beside her carrying a basket. Inside the basket were three magnificent apples and three red roses. Dorothy asked the child to take the basket to Theophilus. When the lawyer saw the fresh, fragrant fruit and flowers in the middle of a frozen winter, he was so stunned by the miracle that he immediately converted to Christianity. Dorothy was immensely popular (becoming the patron saint of florists and fruit sellers) and she was formally accepted by the Church long before the modern canonization office was created.