St. Antony and St. Fiacre!

St. Fiacre and St. Antony were ascetics, powerful in prayer and meditation and the working of miracles that followed such practices. St. Fiacre's knowledge of using herbs in the practice of the healing arts, and his penchant for farming the land led him to become known as Patron Saint of Gardeners. St. Antony of Egypt is renowned as Patriarch of ascetics, dying in the year 356 at 105 years old. He is not to be confused with St. Antony of Padua, the finder of lost things. He is one of my favorite Saints, but the teaming up of the other Antony and Fiacre in this article is for a reason.

The biggest reason, that I could not find, nor have the resources on hand to understand and write about the process and growth of St. Fiacre's spirituality. Mr. John Hoh, my Suite101 Religion Editor, who is the nicest editor in the world, mentioned in a Suite101 notice to editors that his Lutheran pastor was waiting for an article on St. Fiacre. So, looking around on my bookshelf I found a blue cloth book on Ancient Christian Writers about the life of St. Antony written by St. Athanasius.

Now, I do not get into theology in these articles. If you want to understand the theology of the saints you could drop into another Suite101 religion topic. My articles are intended for all age groups, simple pieces about the saints focusing on the process of their spiritual development or certain turning points in their lives. At what point was it that they decided to live for God, or to forbear their mission of proclaiming their personal Savior, Jesus, in work and the lives they lived?

For most it seems it was a gradual process stemming from the influence, good or bad, of their early years. My own opinion is that they were touched by grace before they were born, singled out for a particular mission and protected by unseen forces throughout their lifetimes so they could fulfill their destinies. St. Athanasius was a bishop wanting to make Antony known to those seeking a monastic life. Sometimes in the retelling of stories about the saints, accounts can become grandiose according to the devotion that one saint brought to another. For instance the saints were always being shot at by arrows or one thing or another, and nearly destroyed many times by the dastardly plots of men.

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