|
FiacreSaint Fiacre (or Fiachra) was born in Ireland in the seventh century. He was better known in France, where he built a Hospice for travellers in what is now Saint-Fiacre-en-Brie. His relics are installed in Meaux Cathedral. In Ireland his feast day is 1 September, elsewhere it is 18 August. PatronageHe is the Patron saint of:Taxi DriversThe first horse-drawn carriages in France were offered outside the Hotel Saint-Fiacre in Paris. This later led to him becoming the patron of taxi-drivers and to fiacre becoming a word in the French language for a carriage..Venereal DiseaseFiacre was famously misogynistic, which, it is argued, is the reason he became connected with venereal disease sufferers.HorticulturistsThe patron of horticulturists, outside his hospice Fiacre ploughed a very fertile garden, with only his walking stick.HemorrhoidsIt is said that Fiacre became the patron of Hemorrhoid sufferers after taxi-drivers began to suffer from the complaint, after sitting down for so many hours at a time. |
This page is based on the Wikipedia article ''Fiacre''. It is licensed under the GNU free documentation license.