Cono the gardener lived during the reign of emperor Decius in 251. He came from the town of Nazareth. He left his hometown and went to the city of Mandron, in the province of Pamphylia. There he stayed at a place called Karmela or Karmena cultivating a garden which he used to water and plant with various vegetables. From this garden he obtained what is necessary for life. He had such an upright and simple mind that, when he met those who wished to arrest him and saw that they greeted him, he also greeted in return from the bottom of his soul and heart. When they told him that governor Publius called the saint to go to him, the saint answered with simplicity: "What does the governor need me, since I am a Christian? Let him call those who think the way he does and have the same religion with him." So, the blessed man was tied and brought to the governor, who tried to move him to sacrifice to the idols. But the saint sighed from the bottom of his heart, cursed the tyrant and confirmed his faith in Christ with his confession, saying that it is not possible to be moved from it even though he might be tortured cruelly.
From Mission St. Clare.
Thanks to Ann. I'd never heard of St. Cono before today.
In garden catalogs I've seen statues of St. Fiacre, also named as the patron saint of gardeners.
St Cono the Gardener, not to be confused with St Cono the Barbarian.
ReplyDeleteHe sounds fabulous, anyway. Any saint who likes growing veg is allright by me.
Fiacre, for whom a French horse-drawn cab was named, is also patron of taxi drivers. Busy man, I'm guessing.
ReplyDeleteCathy, please leave the stage. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLapin, several websites list the saints and their areas of patronage. Certain saints must never have a chance to take a breath, because their lists are long.
New York's cabbies alone, by reputation, would need a battery of intercessors.
ReplyDeleteLapin, what amazes me about the cabbies in NYC is that the drivers do not have more wrecks. I don't know that I've ever seen a car wreck, much less been involved in one, and I've visited the city countless times.
ReplyDeleteMaybe St Fiacre is a capable guy, Mimi. Wonder if he cuts deals for any other groups. Wiki says he was Irish.
ReplyDeleteFiacre - "Gardeners; taxi cab drivers; venereal disease sufferers; barrenness; box makers; fistula; florists; hemorrhoids; hosiers; pewterers; tile makers; ploughboys." Wiki. Something for everyone, it seems.
ReplyDeleteLapin, at first I read "barrenness" as "baronesses", and thought to myself, "My goodness! Baronesses have their own saint." Well, why not? Hosiers and ploughboys have theirs.
ReplyDeleteFistulas and hemorrhoids? Guess what that makes him patron of?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Webster revise "hemorrhoid"?
apparently St Francis de Sales is patron saint of journalists. I did not know that until this post inspired me to look it up. He sounds like a cool guy, too.
ReplyDelete