Saint Fiacre
![[Saint Fiacre statue]](saintf13.jpg "18kb jpg photograph of statue of Saint Fiacre, date unknown, artist unknowm, photographer unknown; please do not write to ask about the image")
- Also known as
-
Fiachrach;
Fiacrius;
Fiaker;
Fevre
- Memorial
- 30 August
- Profile
- 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, and especially a tumour or fistula since called "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 as "fiacres".
- Died
- 18 August 670; his relics have been distributed to several churches and cathedrals across Europe
- Patronage
-
barrenness;
box makers;
cab drivers;
fistula;
florists;
gardeners;
haemorrhoids;
hosiers;
pewterers;
piles;
taxi drivers;
sterility;
syphilis;
tile makers;
venereal disease
- Representation
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spade;
man carrying a spade and a basket of vegetables beside him surrounded by pilgrims and blessing the sick
- Storefront
- Commercial Links related to Saint Fiacre
- Additional Information
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Google Directory
About.Com
Catholic Online
Boerner Botanical Gardensby Leona Woodring Smith
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Golden Legend
New Catholic Dictionary
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