Read by Michael Flamel

Christmas is coming, and Santa Claus—St. Nicholas—is starting to stuff his big sack of presents. But did you ever stop and think, “Who was St. Nicholas, and why does he go around bringing gifts?” The original Nicholas was the son of a wealthy merchant who lived in Lycia (now Turkey) during the reign of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century A.D. One day, he passed under the window of a merchant who had recently suffered heavy financial losses. Nicholas overheard the merchant telling his daughters that he couldn’t afford the dowries they needed to marry—so he’d have to sell them into prostitution!

Late that night, Nicholas threw a bag of money up into the house, enough for the first daughter’s dowry. The next night, he came and threw in another bag for the second daughter. The third night, he hefted in one more bag for the third.

His generosity went on from there. Nicholas had found his calling—giving. If you ever see a picture where St. Nick is holding three balls, now you know why. They represent the three dowries.

So, Christmas has a saint all its own. But joy to the world, so does gardening! And it’s not the one you might expect: St. Francis, that peaceful nature lover. No, the true patron saint of gardening is St. Fiacre of Ireland.

Here’s his story.

Back in the sixth century A.D., many Irish monks went on missions to the barbarians in Europe. One of them, Fiacre, settled in the countryside outside Paris. There he built an oratory to the Virgin Mary and grew a garden of medicinal herbs and vegetables.

Fiacre soon became well known for healing the sick with the herbs from his garden. Word spread and more visitors came than his modest hermitage could handle. So, he went to the local bishop to ask for more land. The bishop said, “Fiacre, I will give you all the land you can enclose with your spade in one day.”

Fiacre staked out the area he wanted to enclose, a perimeter far larger than he could ever hope to dig in a day. Then he put his spade down, went inside—and prayed.

The next day the entire area was bordered by a new ditch, a feat the bishop recognized as a divine miracle.

Many of us gardeners will want to expand our gardens this Spring, and we could certainly use some help—if nothing else, at least some emotional support! Consider calling on St. Fiacre. As Richard Marius, a senior lecturer of English at Harvard University, put it, “If he does not help with the digging and the heavy lifting, he can at least grant patience and persistence in labor that is never done. He is a saint for lowly things and for increase, and his blessings are welcomed by those who love springtime and planting, summer and harvest, the smell of turned earth, and the joy of a flowering land.”

So, while this December we’ll all remember the man we’ve turned into “Jolly Old St. Nick,” let’s also lift a trowel to gardening’s very own guardian, St. Fiacre.

That’s our man, the patron saint of gardening, St. Fiacre. ❖