stitchwhich (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stitchwhich) wrote2010-03-28 11:54 am
stitchwhich) wrote2010-03-28 11:54 am
Entry tags:
Oh! Oh! Oh! Knitting Tie-In!
From my research, a quote by Chris Laning (some Scadians might recognise that name), Sep 1, 2004, on the Medieval Religion List:
"St. Fiacre is often mentioned as the patron of gardeners, and of knitters.
The knitting connection seems to stem from Savary des Bruslons' Dictionnaire Universel de Commerce, published in 1723, which mentions a cap-knitters' Guild of St. Fiacra in Paris founded in 1527. (There are actually citations of him as the patron of the cotton-cap-knitters' guild in Paris in 1387.) Bruslons, apparently guessing wildly, says that St. Fiacra was chosen as patron because he was the son of a Scottish king (which he wasn't) and it was believed that knitting first came to France from Scotland (which it didn't). However his speculations still turn up in discussions of knitting lore.
Richard Rutt's _A History of Hand Knitting_ goes on to say:
"Patron saints for craftsmen were chosen for accidental reasons, such as the name of the guild church or altar, or a saint's day that provided a [suitable] holiday. The latter reason may explain why in Barcelona the silk knitters chose St. Lucy and St. Ursula, while the wool-stocking knitters chose St. Sebastian - though St. Sebastian's arrows may have suggested knitting needles. There was another Parisian guild of _bonnetiers_, established at the church of St. Martin in the Faubourg Saint Marcel. St. Michael the Archangel, their patron, was certainly not chosen because he had any close connection with either caps or knitting."
"St. Fiacre is often mentioned as the patron of gardeners, and of knitters.
The knitting connection seems to stem from Savary des Bruslons' Dictionnaire Universel de Commerce, published in 1723, which mentions a cap-knitters' Guild of St. Fiacra in Paris founded in 1527. (There are actually citations of him as the patron of the cotton-cap-knitters' guild in Paris in 1387.) Bruslons, apparently guessing wildly, says that St. Fiacra was chosen as patron because he was the son of a Scottish king (which he wasn't) and it was believed that knitting first came to France from Scotland (which it didn't). However his speculations still turn up in discussions of knitting lore.
Richard Rutt's _A History of Hand Knitting_ goes on to say:
"Patron saints for craftsmen were chosen for accidental reasons, such as the name of the guild church or altar, or a saint's day that provided a [suitable] holiday. The latter reason may explain why in Barcelona the silk knitters chose St. Lucy and St. Ursula, while the wool-stocking knitters chose St. Sebastian - though St. Sebastian's arrows may have suggested knitting needles. There was another Parisian guild of _bonnetiers_, established at the church of St. Martin in the Faubourg Saint Marcel. St. Michael the Archangel, their patron, was certainly not chosen because he had any close connection with either caps or knitting."