Saint Fiacre

Saint Fiacre of Breuil
Stained glass window, Notre-Dame, Bar-le-Duc, France, 19th century.
Born	7th century Ireland
Died	18 August 670 AD
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Feast	30 August
Attributes	spade; basket of vegetables.
Patronage	medicine; gardeners; venereal disease sufferers

Saint Fiacre (Irish: Fiachra, Latin: Fiacrius) is the name of three different Irish saints, the best-known being Saint Fiacre of Breuil, (died 18 August 670), who built a hospice for travellers in what is now Saint-Fiacre, Seine-et-Marne in France.

Fiachra is an ancient pre-Christian name from Ireland. The meaning has been interpreted to mean "battle king", or possibly a derivative of the word fiach "raven". The name can be found in ancient Irish folklore and stories such as the Children of Lir.

Fiacre lived in a hermitage in County Kilkenny. His unwanted fame as one skilled with herbs, a healer and holy man, caused disciples to flock to him. Seeking greater solitude, he left his native land and sought refuge in France, at Meaux.

He approached St Faro, the Bishop of Meaux, to whom he made known his desire to live a life of solitude in the forest. St Faro assigned him a site at Breuil, in the region of Brie. Here Fiacre built an oratory in honour of the Virgin Mary, a hospice in which he received strangers, and a cell in which he himself lived apart. He lived a life of great mortification, in prayer, fast, vigil, and the manual labor of the garden. He died on 18 August 670.

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