Rooted in monastic and papal tradition as well as in canonical precision, ‘Pie Pellicane’ embodies a renewed attention to the material integrity of the Eucharist.
In medieval Christian iconography, the pelican represented one of the most powerful symbols of the Eucharist.
Believed to feed its young with blood drawn from its own breast, it evokes the self-giving love of Christ, who nourishes his children from his own substance.
It is this image that St. Thomas Aquinas contemplated when he wrote Adoro te devote, addressing Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as Pie Pellicane — the “loving, pious Pelican.” And it is this name that the Benedictine monks of the world-renowned Abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux, in southern France, have chosen for their liturgical wine, their newest and most intimate creation.
Via Caritatis has already told the story of monks, nuns and winegrowers joining forces to produce wines of rare quality from a terroir long overlooked — and of their plans to build the world’s first museum dedicated to abbey wines. Pie Pellicane is a different kind of project altogether. The result of several years of research conducted by monks in collaboration with theologians familiar with the technical
