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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 Street Faro, the Bishop of Meaux, to whom he made known his desire to live a life of solitude in the forest. Street 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. Legends
Street 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.
Faro, however, recognized that this was the work of God. From this point on it is said Street Fiacre barred women, on pain of severe bodily infirmity, from the precincts of his monastery.
Veneration
Street Fiacre"s relics are installed in Meaux Cathedral. The Roman Martyrology commemorates his feast on 11 August.
Meaux continued to be a great centre of devotion to Fiacre, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Visitors to his shrine included Anne of Austria, Bousset, and Vincent de Paul. Street Fiacre had a reputation for healing haemorrhoids, which were called "Saint Fiacre"s figs" in the Middle Ages. Cardinal Richelieu visited the saint"s relics hoping for relief from this illness.
Patronage
Street Fiacre is the patron saint of the French commune Saint-Fiacre.
He is also the patron of those who grow vegetables and medicinal plants, and of gardening in general including Ploughboys. To celebrate the Millennium, Saint Fiachra"s Garden was opened in 1999 at the Irish National Study, Tully, County Kildare, Ireland.
Saint Fiacre is commonly invoked to help heal people suffering from various ills, based on his reputed skill with medicinal plants. His reputed aversion to women is believed to be the reason he is known as the patron saint of venereal disease sufferers.
Fiacre cabs
From about 1650, the Hotel de Saint Fiacre, in the rue Street-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, Saint Fiacre is not recognized as such by the Church. Two other Saint Fiachra/Fiacres existed - Saint Fiachra, Abbot of Urard, County Carlow (Ireland) and Saint Fiachra, Abbot of Clonard.