St Fiacre - feast day - 1 September 2023

     It is interesting how I first discovered the saint we celebrate today.  Several years ago, I was visiting some friends in Indianapolis. We were admiring a friend’s beautiful garden in which there was a large statue of a saint wearing a cassock with a hoe in his hand. I asked that friend if that was St Francis of Assisi, but that she stated it was St Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners. A couple days later we were in the garden of another friend, when lo and behold, I encountered another statue of St Fiacre. St Fiacre was an Irish monk from the 7th century who traveled to continental Europe in order to be a missionary. He settled among the Franks near the town of Meaux, not far from Paris, where he told the local bishop that he sought silence and solitude. Fiacre built a monastery where he could live and where he tended a garden to sustain himself. He became adept at using herbs to heal people, which drew many of the faithful to come to his monastery. He was known for his charity to the poor. An interesting point about St Fiacre: he became the patron saint of Parisian taxicab drivers as well.  We might wonder how this came to be, as there does not seem to be a logical connection between gardeners and taxicab drivers. It began at the Hotel de Saint Fiacre in Paris, which rented carriages back in the 17th century. People began referring to these carriages as “Fiacre cabs”, and then simply “fiacres”. Thus, the drivers of these carriages took on St. Fiacre as their patron and protector. In the medieval period, people prayed to St Fiacre for help and healing many centuries after his death. Anne of Austria attributed the recovery of king Louis XIII from a terrible illness to the intercession of St Fiacre, to whom she prayed. In thanksgiving, she made a pilgrimage on foot to his shrine in 1641. I know we have a lot of parishioners who are very devoted to their gardens.  Let us unite our prayers with the prayers of the wonderful saint Fiacre today.  Have a blessed end to your week - I hope to see all of you at Mass this weekend.  Father Lincoln.