August 25, 2026
SAGE
Many species of Sage are highly esteemed in European countries for their medicinal qualities, and most of the continental names of the plant are like the botanical one of Salvia, from Salvo, to save or heal. The ancients ascribed to the herb manifold virtues, and regarded it as a preserver of the human race (“Salvia, Salvatvix, naturæ conciliatrix.”).
In mediæval times, the plant, on account of its numerous properties, obtained the name of Officinalis Christi, and was reported to have been blessed by the Virgin Mary.
So wholesome was the herb considered, that the school of Salerno summed up its surpassing merits in the line—
“Cur morietur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto?”
“How can a man die who grows Sage in his garden?”
Probably this saying gave rise to the piece of advice contained in the old English proverb—
Parkinson remarks that “Sage is much used in the month of May, fasting, with butter and Parsley, and is held of most to conduce much to the health of man,” and Turner says that “it restores natural heat, and comforts the vital spirits, and helps the memory, and quickens the senses; it is very healthful to be eaten in May with butter, and also to be drank in ale.” The Greeks of Crete (where Sage is grown abundantly) are very careful to gather the herb either on the first or second day of May, before sunrise.
In Sussex, to charm away ague fits, the peasantry eat Sage-leaves fasting for nine mornings consecutively. In Franche-Comté, the herb is believed to mitigate grief, moral as well as physical.
In Piedmont, there exists a tradition that if Sage is placed in a glass phial and buried beneath a dung-heap, a certain animal will grow, the blood of which, if tasted by dogs, will cause them to lose consciousness. There exists, also, a belief among Piedmontese girls that in every Sage-leaf is concealed a little toad; and Robert Turner, in his work on English plants (1687), states that “Rue is good to be planted amongst Sage, to prevent the poison which may be in it by toads frequenting amongst it, to relieve themselves of their poison, as is supposed; but Rue being amongst it, they will not come near it.”
There is an old superstition that, with the aid of Sage, young women may see their future husbands by practising the following extraordinary spell:—On Midsummer Eve, just after sunset, three, five, or seven young women are to go into a garden, where there is no other person, and each is to gather a sprig of Red Sage, and then, going into a room by themselves, set a stool in the middle of the room, and on it a clean bason full of Rose-water, on which the sprigs of Sage are to be put; and tying a line across the room, on one side of the stool, each maiden is to hang on it a clean smock, turned the wrong side outwards; then all are to sit down in a row, on the opposite side of the stool, as far distant as the room will allow, in perfect silence. At a few minutes after twelve, each maid’s future husband will take her sprig of Sage out of the Rose-water and sprinkle her smock with it.
Sage is held to be a herb of Jupiter.