How to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Fiacre. Rare.
[Irish saints] / [Pilgrimage]. La vie de Saint Fiacre confesseur, patron de Brie avec des avertissemens aux Pelerins. A Troyes: Chez la Veuve de Jean Oudout, Imprimeur-Librai[r]e, ruë du Temple, 1752. 12mo [14.1 x 8.8 cm], [1] f. integral blank, [1] title, 5-34 pp., [1] f. integral blank), with woodcut of saint on title. Half bound in modern percaline and faux marbled paper over card, gold-stamped spine., ex-libris Louis Lebeuf de Montgermont (1841-1918) inside upper cover. Binding well preserved. Uniform toning, leaves unevenly trimmed resulting in some narrow margins.
Rare (1 U.S. copy: Berkeley) 1752 edition of this French handbook for pilgrims visiting the shrine of the hermit St. Fiacre of Breuil (c. 600-670) in Meaux.
The work begins with a biography of Fiacre, who emigrated from his native Ireland (his family was said to have been of Scottish origin) to France, where, with the support of Faro, Bishop of Meaux, he built a hermitage, oratory and hospice for travelers. He ate only from the garden adjoining his cell (Fiacre is now the patron saint of gardeners).
Special attention is given to women in the story of Fiacre. One Fiacre’s sisters, Syra of Troyes, left Ireland to join him in France, where she became a nun at the convent at Brie, which was led by Faro’s sister, Farra, and was home to nuns from England: “Elle avoit nom Sire & on tient qu’elle embrassa depuis la vie Religieuse, au Monastere de sainte Fare, Soeur de saint Faron, qui gouvernoit pour lors dans ce Diocèse une Communuté de saintes Vierges, entre lesquelles il y en avoit quelques-unes venuës d’Angleterre” (pp. 8-9).
Also recounted are Fiacre’s feud with a local woman named Becnaude (she saw Fiacre clearing land with miraculously alacrity and accused him of witchcraft; Fiacre thereafter banned women from his hermitage), and his later influence on Christine de Lorraine (1565-1637), Marie de Médicis (1575-1642), and Marie-Anne d’Autriche (1634-96).
Also noted is Fiacre’s relationship with “Chillen,” i.e., St. Kilian of Aubigny.
After giving some attention to Fiacre’s miracles, the book provides advice to pilgrims traveling to his shrine in Meaux. These are mostly meditative or contemplative practices intended to curb the pilgrim’s tendency toward idle sightseeing, dissipation, talkativeness, etc., and to increase the likelihood that those suffering from ailments might be healed. Each day one is to say the Veni Creator and to recite the Rosary, Pater, and Ave in rotation. “It will also be good to have a few little books of piety which are short but wise, such as the ‘Livre de L’Imitation de Jesus Christ’ [Kempis] or the ‘Pensées Chrétiene[s]’ [likely Nepveu or Bouhours] in which to read from time to time some piece to nourish the soul …” (p. 20)
The book ends with several songs, prayers and sonnets on Fiacre, the last of which is the Latin “Prosa de Sancto Fiacrio Briae Patrono” with facing French translation.
Observe that the woodcut of a saint on the title page was clearly printed from a block cut much earlier than the printing of the book.
A colophon reading “Permis d’imprimer A Troyes ce Treize Juillet 1717. G. de Chavaudon” follows the “Prosa de Sancto Fiacrio Briae Patrono” and either applies only to it or suggests an (otherwise unrecorded) 1717 edition of La vie de Saint Fiacre confesseur.
OCLC locates the only U.S. copy of our edition (Troyes: Chez la Veuve de Jean Oudout, 1752) at Berkeley. An un-dated edition (A Troyes: Chez J. A. Garnier) is located at the Cleveland Public Library. The earliest recorded edition seems to the 1726 (A Troyes: Chez le veuve de Jacques Oudot, imprimeur, ruë du Temple) at the Newberry Library.
*Collated with the Ghent University copy; J. Dubois, Un sanctuaire monastique au Moyen-Age: Saint-Fiacre-en-Brie.