Name . is an ancient pre-
Christian,
Irish name. It has been interpreted to denote "battle king" 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 Fiacre was in an unattested
*Brogilum in
Medieval Latin, whose Gallo-Roman form had regularly evolved into
Breuil and
Breil (
Monasterium quod dicitur Breilum,
tribus distans millibus ab urbe Meldis, 11th century in
Vita S. Faronis), forming his epithet. However, Breuil was then renamed
Saint-Fiacre The commune of
Breuil-sur-Vesle (
Department of Marne,
Broilum 847-857),
France is located quite 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 . "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." He arrived in
Meaux,
France in AD 628. (presently
Saint-Fiacre,
Department of Seine-et-Marne,
France) when Fiacre approached him and manifested his desire to live a life of solitude in the forest. There 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". Fiacre's sister
Syra came to join him in France and became a nun. She was blind, but as
John O'Hanlon relates, "Through his merits, St. Fiacre had an inspiration, that his sister should recover her sight, while to her in like manner was revealed the spot where the body of
St. Savinien lay. There, prostrating herself, she poured forth her soul in prayer, and her face bedewed with tears, she would not rise from the ground until her petition was heard. She was restored miraculously to the use of vision."
Veneration 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 30 August, although some Catholic sources use an alternative date of 1 September.
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,
John of Matha,
Louis XIII, and
Vincent de Paul. Wooden devotional figures of the saint exist from as early as the 1400s. 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 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. Finally, he is commonly invoked to heal persons suffering from various infirmities, premised on his reputed skill with medicinal plants.
Fiacre cabs From about 1650, the
Hôtel 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, Fiacre is not recognized as such by the Catholic Church. == Other Fiacres ==