Fiacre

Feastday: September 1
Patron: of Gardeners and Cab-drivers

St. Fiacre (Fiachra) is not mentioned in the earlier Irish calendars, but it is said that he was born in Ireland and that he sailed over into France in quest of closer solitude, in which he might devote himself to God, unknown to the world. He arrived at Meaux, where Saint Faro, who was the bishop of that city, gave him a solitary dwelling in a forest which was his own patrimony, called Breuil, in the province of Brie. There is a legend that St. Faro offered him as much land as he could turn up in a day, and that St. Fiacre, instead of driving his furrow with a plough, turned the top of the soil with the point of his staff. The anchorite cleared the ground of trees and briers, made himself a cell with a garden, built an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and made a hospice for travelers which developed into the village of Saint-Fiacre in Seine-et-Marne. Many resorted to him for advice, and the poor, for relief. His charity moved him to attend cheerfully those that came to consult him; and in his hospice he entertained all comers, serving them with his own hands, and sometimes miraculously restored to health those that were sick. He never allowed any woman to enter the enclosure of his hermitage, and Saint Fiacre extended the prohibition even to his chapel; several rather ill-natured legends profess to account for it. Others tell us that those who attempted to transgress, were punished by visible judgements, and that, for example, in 1620 a lady of Paris, who claimed to be above this rule, going into the oratory, became distracted upon the spot and never recovered her senses; whereas Anne of Austria, Queen of France, was content to offer up her prayers outside the door, amongst the other pilgrims.

The fame of Saint Fiacre's miracles of healing continued after his death and crowds visited his shrine for centuries. Mgr. Seguier, Bishop of Meaux in 1649, and John de Chatillon, Count of Blois, gave testimony of their own relief. Anne of Austria attributed to the meditation of this saint, the recovery of Louis XIII at Lyons, where he had been dangerously ill; in thanksgiving for which she made, on foot, a pilgrimage to the shrine in 1641. She also sent to his shrine, a token in acknowledgement of his intervention in the birth of her son, Louis XIV. Before that king underwent a severe operation, Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, began a novena of prayers at Saint-Fiacre to ask the divine blessing. His relics at Meaux are still resorted to, and he is invoked against all sorts of physical ills, including venereal disease. He is also a patron saint of gardeners and of cab-drivers of Paris. French cabs are called fiacres because the first establishment to let coaches on hire, in the middle of the seventeenth century, was in the Rue Saint-Martin, near the hotel Saint-Fiacre, in Paris. Saint Fiacre's feast is kept in some dioceses of France, and throughout Ireland on this date. Many miracles were claimed through his working the land and interceding for others. Feast day is September 1st.

Name of three different Irish saints

Saint Fiacre (Irish: Fiachra, Latin: Fiacrius) is the name of three different Irish saints, the most famous of which is Saint Fiacre of Breuil (c. AD 600 – 18 August 670), the Catholic priest, abbot, hermit, and gardener of the seventh century who was famous for his sanctity and skill in curing infirmities. He emigrated from his native Ireland to France, where he constructed for himself a hermitage together with a vegetable and herb garden, oratory, and hospice for travellers. He is the patron saint of gardeners.

Saint Fiacre of Breuil

Name

St. Fiacre window, Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania)

Fiachra is an ancient pre-Christian, Irish name. It has been interpreted to denote "battle king" or to derive from fiach ("raven"). The name is found in ancient Irish folklore and stories such as the Children of Lir.

The appellation "of Breuil" can in present times be misleading: the site of the hermitage, garden, oratory, and hospice of Saint Fiacre was in the place denominated "Brogillum" in ancient times and later renamed "Breuil", forming his epithet. However, Breuil was then again renamed "Saint-Fiacre" in his honor, which is the name of the present commune on the same site, in the Department of Seine-et-Marne, France. The commune of Breuil, Department of Marne, France is located far from and is not the same as the commune of Saint-Fiacre (formerly named "Breuil"), although the two communes probably were both in the ancient French Province of Brie, which adds to the confusion.

Life

Saint Fiacre, 15th-century statue in the Church of Saint Taurin d'Évreux

"Though not mentioned in the earlier Irish calendars, Fiacre was born in Ireland at the end of the sixth century AD. He was raised in a monastery where he became a monk and imbibed knowledge of herbal medicine." Fiacre was ordained a Catholic priest at some point, and elevated to the rank of abbot. "In time he had his own hermitage and perhaps a monastery, possibly near St. Fiachra’s Well at Cill Fiachra (Kilferagh), Sheastown, in the barony of Shillelogher near Bennetsbridge, County Kilkenny, Ireland. As crowds flocked to him because of his reputation for his holiness and cures, he sailed to France in search of greater solitude."

He arrived in Meaux, France in AD 628. Saint Faro, the Bishop of Meaux, was "well-disposed to him due to kindnesses he and his father’s house had received from the Irish missionary Columbanus," and so "granted him a site at Brogillum (Breuil), in the province of Brie" (presently Saint-Fiacre, Department of Seine-et-Marne, France) when Saint Fiacre approached him and manifested his desire to live a life of solitude in the forest. There Saint Fiacre built a hermitage for his dwelling, a vegetable and herb garden, an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a hospice in which he cared for travellers. He lived a life of great mortification devoted to prayer, fasting, keeping vigils, and manual cultivation of his garden. "His fame for miracles was widespread. He cured all manner of diseases by laying on his hands".

He died on 18 August AD 670, and his body was interred in the local church of the site of his hermitage complex, which church became his original shrine. The site of his hermitage complex developed into a village, which was later named Saint-Fiacre and is presently in the Department of Seine-et-Marne, France.

Legends

Saint Faro allowed Saint Fiacre as much land as he might entrench in one day with a furrow; Fiacre turned up the earth with the end of his staff, toppling trees and uprooting briers and weeds. A suspicious woman hastened to tell Saint Faro that he was being beguiled and that this was witchcraft. Saint Faro, however, recognized that this was the work of God. It is said that thereafter Saint Fiacre prohibited women, on pain of severe bodily infirmity, from the precincts of his hermitage.

Veneration

St. Fiachra's garden, Irish National Stud and Gardens

Saint Fiacre's relics were preserved in his original shrine in the local church of the site of his hermitage, garden, oratory, and hospice, in present Saint-Fiacre, Seine-et-Marne, France, but later transferred in 1568 to their present shrine in Meaux Cathedral in Meaux, which is near Saint-Fiacre and in the same French department, because of fear that fanatical Calvinists endangered them. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 11 August. 1 September is given as an alternative date for his memorial. Meaux continued to be a great centre of devotion to him, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. Visitors to his shrine included Anne of Austria, Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Saint John of Matha, King Louis XIII of France, and Saint Vincent de Paul. Saint Fiacre had a reputation for healing haemorrhoids, which were denominated "Saint Fiacre's figs" in the Middle Ages. Cardinal Richelieu venerated his relics hoping to be relieved of the infirmity.

To celebrate the Second Millennium, "Saint Fiachra's Garden" opened in 1999 at the Irish National Stud and Gardens, Tully, County Kildare, Ireland, his nation of birth.

Patronage

Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of the commune of Saint-Fiacre, Seine-et-Marne, France. He is the patron of growers of vegetables and medicinal plants, and gardeners in general, including ploughboys. His reputed aversion to women is believed to be the reason he is also considered the patron of victims of venereal disease. He is further the patron of victims of hemorrhoids and fistulas, taxi cab drivers, box makers, florists, hosiers, pewterers, tilemakers, and those suffering from infertility. Finally, he is commonly invoked to heal persons suffering from various infirmities, premised on his reputed skill with medicinal plants.

Fiacre cabs

Main article: Fiacre (carriage)

From about 1650, the Hotel de Saint Fiacre, in the rue St-Martin in Paris, hired out carriages. These carriages came to be known as fiacres, which became a generic term for hired horse-drawn transport. Although sometimes claimed by taxi-drivers as a patron saint, St. Fiacre is not recognized as such by the Church.