If asked, probably 99 out of 100 people would say that the patron saint of gardeners is St. Francis. This pious man with a long cloak is often pictured holding a bird or two in his hands, and his statue made of concrete, resin or plastic stands in many gardens, whether the gardener is Catholic or not.
Actually, the patron saint of gardeners is not St. Francis; it is St. Fiacre. Fiacre was one of many Irish monks who were sent to Europe to spread God’s word in the 600s. Fiacre, who was dispatched to France, soon made a name for himself as a pious monk, but wished only to become a hermit. So, Faro, the Bishop of Meaux, granted him some land deep in the forest near the Marne River.
Fiacre cleared a space in the woods and built a small oratory, or prayer chapel, and a hut for himself. Then he began a garden. The garden, just like that of gardeners everywhere, kept getting larger and larger.
Soon roving hunters chanced upon the garden. They heard Fiacre preach and saw him heal, using medicines obtained from herbs and wildflowers. News spread far and wide and many people flocked to Fiacre for healing and spiritual guidance. Before long, so many people were coming to him that he couldn’t accommodate them all. So Fiacre went to the Bishop and asked for more land.
The Bishop knew a good thing when he saw it and told Fiacre that he could have as much land as he could enclose with his spade in one day. Fiacre went home and for 24 hours he dragged his spade behind him along the boundaries he wanted, miraculously causing trees to topple, rocks to be routed and furrows to be plowed. Then he went to the cemetery to pray.
It happened that an envious woman who lived nearby heard by the grapevine that Fiacre was up to something. She hid in the bushes and watched the whole event. It is thought she was an herbalist who, until Fiacre moved in, had had a monopoly on all the healing business in the area.
The jealous woman went to the Bishop and accused Fiacre of sorcery. But when the Bishop heard what happened he called the occurrence a miracle and proclaimed Fiacre a saint. Further, the Bishop was so angered by the woman’s accusations that he called her a witch and denied Fiacre’s oratory to all women for all time. In reality, it was not uncommon at the time to exclude women from religious properties.
Years later, a Benedictine priory was built where Fiacre had begun his solitary garden and many miracles of healing are credited to his saintly relics.
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