Vitex agnus-castus

chained_bear commented on the word Vitex agnus-castus

"... a native Mediterranean aromatic known as agnus castus, Vitex agnus-castus. Classed as powerfully cold and dry, it was used by monks to incline their bodies and thoughts away from the flesh. Serapion, the hugely influential fourth-century monk and companion of the Egyptian hermit Saint Antony, one of the founding fathers of Christian monasticism, dubbed the plant 'monk's pepper,' because, as one medieval authority phrased it, 'it makes men as chaste as lambs.' To this day the plant is known as 'Monk's Pepper Tree.'"

--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 197-198

December 3, 2016