Perhaps you recognize the above picture and are reminded that Spring is here with an update from the St. Cletus Fiacre Society. Maybe you don’t recognize the picture and are wondering, what is this ministry?
St. Fiacre, a 7th Century Irish Monk, the patron Saint of Gardeners (also the patron Saint of taxi drivers!)? This ministry likes to get involved with beautifying our St. Cletus campus through gardening, flowers and building community.
The St. Fiacre legend is this: Fiacre asked the local bishop for more ground on which to plant food and herbs. The bish-op told him he could have as much land as he could entrench in one day. After prayer, Fiacre used the point of his staff to turn the earth, topple trees and dig up briers and weeds to prepare the land for a garden. A suspicious local woman was convinced that such a feat could only be performed by sorcery but the bishop viewed Fiacre’s act as a gift from God and proclaimed it a miracle. As word of Fiacre’s miracle spread, visitors to Fiacre’s Garden brought seeds and plants from afar, and his gardens became famous throughout Europe. The Catholic Church considers Fiacre the saint of grow-ing food and plants used in medicine. After his death in 670 A.D., people who visited his monastery claimed that it had healing power. Fiacre is depicted in art and statuary as an elderly man carrying a spade (see above). While we as yet do not promote our campus grounds and flowers as providing any healing power, we do believe that our efforts to beau-tify our campus with flowers can invoke hospitality, welcoming all to our beautiful church and grounds.
As the Fiacre Society continues to add to our perennial landscape plan professionally designed two years ago, we also gather to plant annuals. We will be planting sometime after Mother’s Day to avoid any damaging late season frost. In future Canticle articles, look for the above picture of St. Fiacre for announcements. We would love to have you join us! Duties of this ministry include weeding, planting annuals, cleaning up flower beds, and to a greater degree, building community. If you would like to become a member of this ministry, helping produce an experience that flowers and prayer can provide, welcoming our fellow parishioners and visitors, please send your email address to Mary Delaney and Tom Reisel at madtfr@att.net. We will add you to our contact list and provide more specifics about future events and projects.