Patronage
2 saints are venerated as patrons of beekeepers, led by Ambrose (feast day December 7).
339 — 397 · Feast day: December 7
The Bishop of Milan whose preaching — honeyed eloquence symbolized by the beehive — helped draw Augustine of Hippo to baptism. Appointed governor, then acclaimed bishop by the crowd before he was even baptized, Ambrose composed hymns still sung today, championed Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism, and forced Emperor Theodosius to public penance for the Thessalonica massacre.
1090 — 1153 · Feast day: August 20
A Cistercian abbot who reshaped medieval monastic life, Bernard of Clairvaux entered the monastery at Cîteaux in 1113 with thirty companions and two years later founded Clairvaux, which spawned 68 daughter houses in his lifetime. He advised popes, preached the Second Crusade, wrote 86 sermons on the Song of Songs, and shaped Marian devotion across the Western church. Dante placed him as his final guide in the Divine Comedy.