CAPG's Blog 

Saint Fiacre. Stained glass window, Notre-Dame, Bar-le-Duc, France, 19th century.

"Sanctify of Labor: Labor, which was imposed on man after the Fall by way of expiation, acts also as a preservative. Virtue and idleness do not dwell under the same roof; assiduous labor leaves no room for vice. This has been well understood by so many founders of religious orders, who enjoined labor on their monks as a positive duty.

St. Fiacre, an Irish monk, having come to France in the seventh century to seek out a solitude, established himself in the forest of Breuil, where he cleared and cultivated a plot of ground the produce whereof sufficed for his own maintenance, and for abundant alms to others. Combining with labor continual prayer and the rigor of penance, he ended by becoming the oracle and apostle of the neighboring regions, and a saint to whom God vouchsafed the gift of miracles. He died in 670, and since then his tomb has always been held in veneration. Princes, kings, prelates, and people have alike honored the poor solitary, who had learned the grand science of labor and prayer.

Moral reflection: Ye who love indolence, ponder well these words of the Great Apostle: "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." (2 Thes. iii. 10.)"

Prayer: Deign, Lord, to raise our souls to Thee, and form our hearts to the cultivation of Christian virtues and to the practice of doing good. We beg Thee, through the intercession of Blessed Saint Fiacre, to grant us the grace to persevere in the way of salvation, so that on the day of eternal justice, Thou may find us worthy of taking our place in the abode of the elect. Amen.