St. Fiacre

St. Fiacre (died c. 670) was an Irish monk who, seeking greater solitude, left his homeland and crossed to Gaul in the seventh century. He was welcomed by St. Faro, bishop of Meaux, who granted him a tract of forest land at Breuil, in the Brie region east of Paris. There Fiacre built a hermitage and oratory dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, cleared the ground, and established a hospice where he received pilgrims, travelers, and the poor with generous hospitality.

He cultivated an extensive garden of vegetables and healing herbs to feed and tend those who came to him, and it is from this that he became one of the best-loved patrons of gardeners, along with growers of vegetables and medicinal plants. Many cures were attributed to his intercession, especially of tumors and other ailments. His shrine at Meaux drew pilgrims for centuries, and his name was later given to the horse-drawn cabs of Paris, which first plied their trade near a Hôtel Saint-Fiacre.