According to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 'hackney carriages
which were let for hire were called fiacres because they plied their
trade from the hotel Saint-Fiacre in Paris', so the word is connected
with the saint only indirectly. His feast day is 1 September in France
and Ireland, but 30 August elsewhere.
Tobias Smollet (in a letter of 1 Sept. 1763) claimed Fiacre as a
fellow-Scot, and reported his vengeance on an English king:
'those who are afflicted with the piles . . . make their joint
invocations to her [Veronica] and St. Fiacre, the son of a Scotch
king, who lived and died a hermit in France. The troops of Henry V.
of England are said to have pillaged the chapel of this Highland
saint; who, in revenge, assisted his countrymen, in the French
service, to defeat the English at Baugé, and afterwards afflicted
Henry with the piles, of which he died. This prince complained,
that he was not only plagued by the living Scots, but even
persecuted by those who were dead.'
Bonnie Blackburn
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Bonnie Blackburn
67 St Bernard's Road
Oxford OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808
fax +44 (0)1865 512237
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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