The Kousa Tree!

photo by ana traina ~2012~

From a distance I was struck by the beauty and color of this handsome Kousa tree in Central Park. Of course, I just had to run over and take a photo for I could not believe its wondrous color.  Then as I stood admiring these tender buds, I was reminded of Saint Fiacre and his legend.

Saint Fiacre was born in Ireland at the end of the 6th century and was the Patron Saint of Gardens.

The legend of Fiacre goes that St Faro allowed him as much land as he might entrench in one day with a furrow; Fiacre turned up the earth with the point of his staff, toppling trees and uprooting briers and weeds. A suspicious woman hastened to tell Faro that he was being beguiled and that this was sorcery.  Faro, however, recognized that this was the work of God. From this point on it is said St Fiacre barred women, on pain of severe bodily infirmity, from the precincts of his monastery.

LAST BIT Of ODD AND END ~ Funny enough, Saint Fiacre is also the patron saint of taxi drivers. The connection came from the fact that the Hotel de Saint Fiacre in Paris, France, rented carriages. People who had no idea who Fiacre was referred to the small Hackney coaches as "Fiacre cabs", and eventually as "fiacres".