January 17 marks the Saint’s day of Saint-Antoine (c. 250-355, known as Anthony the Great to English speakers), an Egyptian Christian monk who lived an ascetic life in the desert and is deemed the father of Christian monasticism.
His relics are said to have been brought back from the Holy Land by Jocelin de Châteauneuf, a lord from the Dauphiné region, to the village of La-Motte-Saint-Didier in the 11th Century.
The Isère village was renamed in Anthony’s honour and became a pilgrimage site.
Today, called Saint-Antoine-l’Abbaye, it is one of France’s Plus Beaux Villages and was voted France’s Favourite Village in the annual TV poll of 2025.
Saint-Antoine is patron saint of truffle farmers
But what of the truffle connection? The Diocese of Avignon explains: “The abbey built in the village housed an Order of Hospitallers, the Antonines, who were responsible for treating a serious disease transmitted by rye flour, ergot poisoning, which, like leprosy, caused the loss of limbs that must be amputated.
“To protect oneself from this disease, one had to eat pork. It seems that this is why Saint Anthony is always depicted with a pig at his feet. Thus, in connection with the pig as a truffle hunter, truffle growers made him their patron saint.”
[An alternative explanation is that Anthony was a swineherd – he is also the patron saint of pork breeders today].
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Truffle snafflers in the French countryside these days tend to use specialist dogs instead of pigs – whose pheromones are similar to the fungi’s scent – to sniff out the tasty tubers. In Italy, truffle ‘hogs’ were banned in 1985.
To appreciate the ongoing importance of truffles in rural France, head to the village of Richerenches in Vaucluse on the third Sunday of January when villagers celebrate La messe aux truffes (truffle mass) in honour of the saint.
A unique feature of the mass is the collection, where offerings are made in the form of fresh truffles instead of the usual coins. The truffles are then weighed and auctioned off, before a gourmet truffle-themed meal is laid on.
For home cooks keen to embrace the truffle spirit over the winter, the main thing to remember is that a little goes a long way – the earthy scent and taste of truffles is fairly intense, so a few shavings into your pasta should suffice.
