Saint Fiacre

Jun 042009

[Saint Fiacre]
Also known as

Fefvre
Fevre
Fiachrach
Fiacrius
Fiaker

30 August

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Brother of Saint Syra of Troyes. Raised in an Irish monastery, which in the 7th century were great repositories of learning, including the use of healing herbs, a skill studied by Fiacre. His knowledge and holiness caused followers to flock to him, which destroyed the holy isolation he sought.

Fleeing to France, he established a hermitage in a cave near a spring, and was given land for his hermitage by Saint Faro of Meaux, who was bishop at the time. Fiacre asked for land for a garden for food and healing herbs. The bishop said Fiacre could have as much land as he could entrench in one day. The next morning Fiacre walked around the perimeter of the land he wanted, dragged his spade behind him. Wherever the spade touched, trees were toppled, bushes uprooted, and the soil was entrenched. A local woman heard of this, and claimed sorcery was involved, but the bishop decided it was a miracle. This garden, miraculously obtained, became a place of pilgrimage for centuries for those seeking healing.

Fiacre had the gift of healing by laying on his hands; blindness, polypus, and fevers are mentioned by the old records as being cured by his touch; he was especially effective against a type of tumour or fistula later known as “le fic de S. Fiacre”.

Fiacre’s connection to cab drivers is because the Hotel de Saint Fiacre in Paris, France rented carriages. People who had no idea who Fiacre was referred to the cabs as Fiacre cabs, and eventually just as fiacres. Those who drove them assumed Fiacre as their patron.