Feast day: June 8

St. Médard

Bishop · c. 456–545

Patron of Weather, vineyards

A widely loved bishop of northern Gaul, generous to the poor and remembered in countless folk customs, who by tradition founded a famous festival crowning a virtuous maiden with roses.

Medard was one of the most popular saints of early medieval France, a bishop of the sixth century born in Picardy to a noble family. Tradition makes him a contemporary of the Frankish royal house, and he was consecrated bishop — of Vermandois, later moving his see to Noyon — about the year 530.

Many charming stories attached themselves to him. The most famous tells how, as a child, he was sheltered from a sudden downpour by an eagle that spread its wings over him, leaving him completely dry — an image that made him the patron invoked for good weather and against bad.

From this grew a body of weather-lore: in French tradition, as with St. Swithin in England, rain on St. Medard's feast was said to foretell rain for forty days after, while fair weather promised a fair stretch to follow. As a result he became a patron of farmers, vineyards, and the harvest, his day watched anxiously by those who lived by the land.

Renowned in his lifetime for his cheerfulness, generosity, and care for the poor, Medard died about 560 and was buried at Soissons, where a great abbey rose over his tomb. He remained for centuries one of the best-loved patrons of the French countryside.

French weather-lore says that as it goes on his feast, so it goes for forty days — the country's own version of the St. Swithin's Day rain legend.

Image: elfabriciodelamancha (CC BY-SA 2.5), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/10115b.htm