¹ Saint Fiacre the confessor, a man of wondrous life, was born in the parts of Ireland of most noble parentage; but, freed from the care of his kinsfolk and untangled from the tumult of the world, desiring to lead a solitary life, he left his parents and country and, the Lord leading, came into the parts of France. At the time when Saint Faro, having left the warfare of the world, held the bishopric of Meaux, Saint Fiacre with his companions sought him out for the sake of hospitality. Whom the most devout Faro gladly received, and, so that he might discover the disposition of his mind, granted that he might remain with him as long as he wished. Looking upon his simple and devout face, he said: “I beg you, dearest, that you make known to me your origin and your country, and the hidden purpose of your mind — where you are bound, and by what name you are called. Then, God willing, I will gladly give you counsel suited to you.” To whom Saint Fiacre answered: “Most reverend father, Ireland, the island of the Scots, gave origin to me and my parents; and because I long to lead a solitary life, I have fled and left my country and my parents, to seek out any place fitting for hermits, and by name I am called Fiacre. Now therefore I earnestly beg your gracious fatherhood that, since you know of some wooded place in these parts where I may devote myself to sacred prayers, you not delay to grant it to me.” Hearing these things the blessed Faro, made joyful, said to him: “I have indeed, not far from here, a certain wood in my own right, which the inhabitants call Brodilus, quite suitable, as I believe, for pursuing the solitary life. If you desire to look upon it, let us go there together.” When it was shown him, the bishop said: “Dearest brother, this place belongs to me by hereditary right, and if it pleases you to dwell there, so much of it as shall be necessary to you I devoutly offer and gladly grant.” Having said this, blessed Fiacre, falling at once at his feet and with tears welling up giving thanks for the benefit conferred on him, said: “Most blessed father, this place delights me exceedingly at the mere sight of it: for it is sufficient, and wholly removed from all human concourse.”

² The saints having parted from one another, the man of God Fiacre tore up the wood and built a monastery in honour of blessed Mary; and increasing in virtues day by day and made austere to himself, he subjected himself more strictly to the service of Christ, and what he daily subtracted from his famished body he mercifully bestowed on pilgrims and the poor. If any deprived of the strength of their limbs, or made speechless, or contracted by dryness of the sinews, or vexed by the infestation of an evil spirit, or even held by infirmity of the whole body, came to him or were brought, by the mere imposition of his hand, with God’s aid, they were restored to their former health. His holy reputation therefore was fragrant everywhere, and many came to him: and so that he might have the means to relieve the needs of those who came, and from the labours of his own hands might lighten the poverty of the poor, it seemed to him that a larger and more spacious place would be useful and necessary — to make a garden, to plant vegetables and kinds of various other herbs. And although blessed Faro had previously granted him only so much of his wood as would suffice for his needs and his garden, yet the humble hermit did not presume to enlarge the place and make a garden without the bishop’s licence. He went therefore to the bishop and asked him that it might be permitted him to clear away so much of the wood around his house that he could make a garden in that place. To whom the bishop granted only so much land as he could enclose with a ditch, digging with his own hand in one day around his house. Then the saint, giving thanks with bowed head and returning to his place, made a prayer and dragged his staff across the ground: and at the touch of the staff the earth gaped open, and the wood fell down on either side.

³ Meanwhile a certain woman came who, seeing the earth’s chasm, astounded at the novelty of the thing, hastened quickly to report it to the bishop, asserting that the hermit was a sorcerer — no worshipper of God, but a magician and enchanter. The woman, returning, presumed to heap insults, reproaches and blasphemies upon the holy man, and commanded him by the bishop’s authority to cease from the work begun, and announced that the bishop himself was coming. The holy man therefore ceasing from the work begun, angry and sorrowful, sat down upon a stone. And see, the hardest stone, softened by the divine will — so that it might be the more suitable for the holy man’s sitting — afforded him a hollow place beneath him. For that same stone is preserved in the monastery of that saint, and the place of his sitting is pointed out; by the touch of which the weak and infirm have been restored to health. The bishop therefore, seeing the stone hollowed out against nature, and that the earth had opened at the touch of the staff and the wood had fallen on either side, and that deep ditches had suddenly been made, loved the hermit thereafter the more fervently, and clung to him in familiar affection. Provoked indeed to anger by the woman, the man of God prayed that God, the Lord of vengeance, would so avenge his injury that every woman entering his monastery would incur an infirmity of her body. A certain woman after these things, rich and noble, desiring to see what would happen to a woman who entered the same monastery, thrust her handmaid into it with her hands: and that mistress lost an eye, while the handmaid remained unharmed. Another woman placed one foot in the monastery: which foot at once swelled, and the swelling mounting, seized her shin, knee and leg.

⁴ Blessed Fiacre therefore shone in his life with signs and virtues, and at his sacred tomb languishing limbs are restored to health, by whatsoever disease they have been weighed down. And he passed to the heavenly joys on the fifteenth kalends of September, and flourished about the year of the Lord 622.

An account. #

¹ About the year 1040 a certain woman dwelling at Laon had a son-in-law comely in youthful appearance, whom she cared for with much diligence for love of her daughter. From which a foul suspicion arose concerning the woman and her son-in-law and greatly troubled her; and bearing impatiently that her good name was soiled by such a reproach, she turned the cause of her injury back upon the son-in-law and procured that he be killed by two boys. Converted afterwards to penitence for the homicide she had committed, she confessed to a certain priest. In the course of time the same priest, quarrelling with her, reproached her to her face with the evil she had done. Hearing which, the kinsfolk of the slain man called the woman to judgment. She, not denying the deed, was adjudged to the fire: but first, led to the church of blessed Mary, she recounted her sin in order before God and men, and commended herself to the merits and prayers of the most holy virgin Mary. Then cast into the fire, she felt no burning, but when the fire was consumed remained unharmed. The fire was increased by the friends of the slain man a second and a third time: but she came out remaining unharmed not only in flesh, but even in clothing and hair. She was led to the church, and after praises rendered to God, by God’s will, after a few days had passed, she departed from the world.