August 30th.  St. Fiacre.

One of many Irish saints who crossed to mainland Europe (7th cent.), Fiacre went to Meaux, east of Paris, and was there given land for a hermitage; he died in 670.  He was venerated in France from an early date (his devotees included St. Vincent de Paul) but in his native Ireland only from the 12th century.  He is a patron of gardeners.  An older French word for a taxi is a ‘fiacre’, because the vehicles operated from the Hôtel St. Fiacre in Paris.  According to his Legend, he was something of a misogynist “both in life and after death”.  It may be news to some to hear that misogyny apparently does not debar one from sainthood, and that it may even be practised after death.  Heaven sounds a more complicated place than we had ever imagined.