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[[File:{{#setmainimage:Warka 2003.jpg}}|thumb|upright|A 2003 label of Warka Jasne Pełne with the portrait of Warka's Warka’s best known native son, Casimir Pulaski (1745–1779), known as the father of U.S. cavalry.]]

There were times, however, when the beer brewed in Warka was considered the best in the region of Masovia and even all across Poland. Warka’s beer-brewing traditions date back to the Middle Ages; even the town’s very name comes from Polish beer terminology and refers to the amount of wort brewed from a&nbsp;single batch of malt. The oldest known mention of the Warka brewery comes from 1478, the year when Duke Boleslav V of Masovia granted the town a&nbsp;monopoly for supplying beer to his own court and to the Warsaw town hall. Warsovians must have really liked the brew, as even two hundred years later Jakub Teodor Trembecki wrote in his poem (about how much alcohol is better than tobacco) that Warsaw lived on Warka beer. And at the beginning of the 19th century, Samuel Bogumił Linde, who compiled the first Polish-language dictionary, could provide only one example of how to use the adjective ``''wareckie“wareckie”''" (``of Warka"“of Warka”) in a&nbsp;sentence: ``''dobre “dobre piwo wareckiewareckie”''", ``good “good Warka beer"beer”.<ref>{{Cyt

| There is a &nbsp;legend about Warka beer and Papal Nuncio Ippolito Aldobrandini, who would later become Pope Clement VIII. During his stay in Poland he grew very fond the Warka beer. He claimed it “was excellent, piquant, reminiscent in colour and flavour of wine.” Back in Rome, he fell gravely ill. On his sickbed, he whispered, “… sancta Piva di Polonia… sancta Biera di Warka…” The clergymen present at his side, assuming he was talking about some obscure saint, proceeded to pray: “Sancta Piva, ora pro nobis” (“Saint Piva, pray for us”). When the sick pope heard it, he burst into laughter. As a &nbsp;result, the ulcer he was suffering from ruptured and Aldobrandini began to recover.

Now, Piva may not mean much to you; unless, that is, you’ve ever had a&nbsp;beer in a&nbsp;Slavic country, in which case you know that ``''piva''"“piva”, ``“pivo”''pivo''" or ``''piwo“piwo”''" is the word for ``beer" “beer” in every Slavic language. It comes from the verb ``to drink"“to drink”, which shows that, for Slavs, beer is, by definition, the thing that you drink. Also notice the ``saint's" “saint’s” alternative name, Biera, which bears resemblance to ``''Bier“Bier”''", the German word for ``beer"“beer”.

| It was also said that Pope Clement VIII, who was in Poland in 1588 as a &nbsp;legate of the Holy See, became a &nbsp;great aficionado of the exquisite beer made in Warka. When, as a &nbsp;pope, he fell gravely ill in Rome, he asked, delirious from fever, for Warka beer, calling out, “Piva di Varca”. The cardinals gathered around the pope’s bed, believing the sick man was invoking some saint for help, immediately began to pray, “Sancta Piva di Varca, ora pro nobis.”

As you can see, the author has neglected to inform us what illness the pope was suffering from or whether he came out of it alive. Is it because this final fragment seems least credible? After all (I’m not a&nbsp;doctor, but) ``ruptured ulcer" “ruptured ulcer” sounds more like a&nbsp;serious complication than a&nbsp;prognostic of imminent recovery.

| It’s worth recalling here a &nbsp;humorous anecdote about Papal Nuncio Gaetano, who was a &nbsp;great lover of Warka beer. When, back in Rome, he fell seriously ill with a &nbsp;throat ulcer, he whispered on his sickbed, “biera di Warka”. The clergymen present at his bed, thinking he was calling an obscure saint, began to pray, “Santa Biera di Warka, ora pro nobis” (“saint beer of Warka, pray for us”). Upon hearing this, the sick prelate burst into laughter and… recovered, as the ulcer he was suffering from finally ruptured.

| In 1596, Enrico Gaetano, an envoy of Pope Clement VIII, praised the beer of Warka in his diaries, claiming it was excellent, whitish, piquant, reminiscent in colour and flavour of wine. About the beer of Warka we once read the following anecdote: Nuncio Saluzzo grew very fond of Warka beer and upon leaving Poland he took with him considerable stock of that beer; but as everything in this world comes to an end, so did the nuncio’s barrels eventually run dry. It came to pass that the venerable prelate fell mortally ill, stifled by an enormous ulcer in his throat, and those gathered around him began to recite the litany for the dying. Meanwhile the sick was suffering from great thirst; in the middle of the litany, somewhere between Saints Gervase and Protase, the nuncio recalled his favourite refreshing beer, “Pivo di Varca, Pivo di Varca!” and sighed deeply twice. The priest reciting the prayer, thinking the nuncio remembered one more saint, responded piously, “Sancta Piva di Varca, ora pro nobis!” Hearing this, the nuncio burst cordially into laughter, the ulcer ruptured and with it ended the sickness. This is how the Polish beer of Warka saved a &nbsp;papal nuncio from death.

Curiouser and curiouser! Firstly, the description of Warka beer as ``excellent“excellent, whitish, piquant, reminiscent in flavor and color of wine" wine” looks familiar, doesn’t it? Ah yes, it was Polish Wikipedia that attributed these words to Clement. Now it turns out it was Caetani’s opinion after all. And secondly, it was neither Clement nor Caetani who suffered from the throat ulcer, but Cardinal Ferdinando Maria Saluzzo, who lived a&nbsp;century later and served as the last papal nuncio to pre-partition Poland. So there, puzzle solved!

| The epithet “saint” or “holy” is used quite often by Italians, whether in anger or in admiration. It comes to them with ease to call an excellent wine vino santo; regarding this topic, it is said that a &nbsp;certain prelate who had been a &nbsp;nuncio in Brussels and who was fond of local beer, being consumed by a &nbsp;violent fever, cried out, “santa birra di Bruxelles”; and that his assistants, believing he had invoked a &nbsp;certain saint, responded earnestly, “ora pro nobis”.

| The beer of Poland is very light and sweet; they call it Piva. That of Barca is the most esteemed. An Italian cardinal, who had been a &nbsp;papal nuncio in this kingdom, fell gravely ill in Rome; in the ardour of fever he remembered that beer, which he had once enjoyed with so much pleasure. And sighing with regret of not being able to sample again such a &nbsp;fine liquor, he called out suddenly with transport, “Ah! Piva di Barca!” Upon hearing this, his parents and servants, gathered around his bed, believed that he was invoking a &nbsp;foreign saint in whom he trusted. And so they all fell to their knees and said loudly, with devotion, raising their eyes to heaven, “Sancta Piva di Barca, ora pro nobis.”

The oldest version of the legend I was able to find makes no mention of the alleged saint whatsoever. It talks only of la sainte bière de Varka, ``the “the holy beer of Warka"Warka”. The following excerpt comes from François-Paulin Dalairac’s account of his travels in Poland, originally published in 1698.

| There are no Jews [in Warka], but there are many rich burghers who brew the best beer you can get in all of Poland (which doesn’t mean much, though). But, as far as this beer is concerned, I should not forget a &nbsp;story which the Poles tell about a &nbsp;cardinal who was once a &nbsp;nuncio in Poland; he had become so accustomed to the beer of Varka, that while dying, he called out for that beverage, as if it was to restore him back to health. He wanted it so bad, that he kept whispering, “bière de Varka, bière de Varka”. And his assistants, believing it to be some saint from a &nbsp;foreign land, whom the good man was invoking in agony, having just recited the litany of saints, added “la sainte bière de Varka”, as a &nbsp;new patron saint known only to the dying cardinal.

| wydawca = les héritiers d'Antoine d’Antoine Schelte