Lenten campaign 2026
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Have you ever been to a garden center and passed by a statue of a saint that you assumed was St. Francis, until you approached more closely and realized it wasn’t? Instead of sporting that familiar tonsure, this lesser-known saint is often depicted wearing a hood over his head, and resting upon a spade or holding a basket of vegetables. Who is he? He is the good St. Fiacre (also Fiachra or Fiacra), patron saint of gardeners.
Although St. Francis, patron saint of animals, remains a perennial garden statue favorite, especially among those who love to attract birds to their gardens (and many a St. Francis statue depicts his arms covered with birds!), more Catholic gardeners are beginning to discover a devotion to St. Fiacre.
A growing trend in Catholic garden statues is to have this patron saint of gardens gracing the space between blooms.
Saint Fiacre is an Irish saint who was born in the seventh century and raised in a monastery. He became a priest, abbot, and master gardener. As his holiness attracted more pilgrims to him, he began upon a quest for greater solitude, and traveled from Ireland to France. But God had other plans, and so he did not exactly find the solitude he had so carefully sought in this new land.
Have you ever felt like that: seeking time alone; and being continuously needed and called upon? St. Fiacre understands!
According to legend, the French bishop Faro offered Saint Fiacre as much land as he could turn up in one day. Rather than use a plough, the saint turned the soil merely with the point of his staff and through the grace of God, thereby receiving a large portion of land!
St. Fiacre built a hermitage and oratory dedicated to the Blessed Mother there with a bountiful garden of vegetables and herbs. He had a reputation for great sanctity and a vast knowledge of herbal medicine. Because of this, once again, many crowds of travelers came to visit him and found miraculous cures, often just from the touch of his hand.
He built a hospice for these travelers, and ministered to them, body and soul. His “green thumb” allowed him to grow great quantities of food with which to feed them, and herbs with which to cure them.
The good Saint Fiacre also had a holy sister, Saint Syra of Troyes. (In this we are reminded of other holy brother and sister pairs, such as St. Benedict and St. Scholastica.)
She, too, has a very interesting story. Saint Syra came to France and became a nun. She was blind, but received a revelation from God as to where the body of the martyr, St. Savinien, lay. Saint Syra prostrated herself on the ground over the sacred spot, weeping, until her pleas were heard. When she rose, her vision miraculously returned.
What a brother and sister team of intercessors Saint Fiacre and Saint Syra are! Both of them brought miracles right out of the ground!
Saint Fiacre’s feast day is August 30. That falls on Labor Day weekend in the United States, the traditional end of summer, as minds turn towards a new school year and return to work after the vacations and relaxation of the warmer months. It is a time many are tempted to feel some understandable sorrow, as we wish we could hold on a little longer to the joys of summer. What if St. Fiacre’s feast day is an answer? What if it is a call, on August 30, to remind us that there is plenty of joy and bounty waiting in the garden for those who continue planting, and trusting in the Master Gardener.
St. Fiacre, pray for us!
