Path: news.ultranet.com!news.sprintlink.net!news-pen-4.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!new-news.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!math.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!er6s1.eng.ohio-state.edu!CE_GLASER From: CE_GLASER@er6.eng.ohio-state.edu (Erin L. Glaser) Newsgroups: alt.brother-jed Subject: Erin's List O' Saints Date: 9 Sep 1996 12:08:05 GMT Organization: The Ohio State University Lines: 305 Message-ID: <5111b5$p40@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: er6s1.eng.ohio-state.edu Status: N Okay guys, by request, here's a pretty good list of traditional patron saints. Kind of like birthstones, only more personal. Enjoy. Redundancies have been removed (ex. Lucy is the patron st. of blindness *AND* eye disease-- we'll just keep it general) and only the most common saint is mentioned where several apply. The notes in parentheses are not the reasons why the saint in question was declared a saint, but the reason for the particular patronage. Incidentally, these are culled from one of the appendices of the _Oxford_Dictionary_of_Saints_, 3rd ed., edited by David Hugh Farmer. Oxford University Press, 1992. ************************************************ *********** PATRON SAINTS **************** ************************************************ Accountants: Matthew (apostle, ex-tax collector) Actors: Genesius (converted while acting in an anti-Christian play) Advertisers: Bernardino of Siena (a successful preacher, he stressed the Holy Name of Jesus by having little cards made that depicted the initials IHS with rays coming from them) Air travelers: Joseph of Copertino (was observed to levitate on over 70 different occasions) Altar servers: Tarsicius (was beaten to death by a pagan mob because he wouldn't tell them what he was carrying, namely the blessed Sacrament) Animals: Francis of Assisi (liked animals) Sick animals: Beuno (animals were miraculously cured at his tomb) Pharmacists: Nicholas (no reason; he's just popular) Archaeologists: Jerome (translated Bible into Latin; he was an early supporter of the notion that translation should be accompanied by thorough exegesis) Archers: Sebastian (shot by arrows but survived, so was clubbed) Architects: Thomas (ancient writings say he built a palace) Artists: Luke (because his Gospel is so beautiful) Astronomers: Dominic Athletes: Sebastian (related to the archers) Bakers: Zita (servant; angels baked her bread while she prayed) Bankers: Matthew (see Accountants) Basketmakers: Antony of Egypt (hermit who, well, made baskets) Beekeepers: Ambrose (a swarm of bees settled on him as a child) Beggars: Martin of Tours (gave 1/2 his cloak to a beggar) Bishops: Charles Borromeo (archbishop of Milan) Blacksmiths: Dunstan (hermit who, well, was a blacksmith) Blind: Lucy (eyes gouged out) Booksellers: John of God (owned a bookshop in Spain) Boys: Nicholas (good old St. Nick) Breast disease: Agatha (tortured by having her breasts cut off) Bricklayers: Stephen (stoned to death--get it? Bricks? Stones?) Bridgebuilders: John Nepomuk (thrown off a bridge and drowned) Broadcasters: Gabriel the Archangel (announced Christ's birth) Bursars: Joseph (not sure why) Cabdrivers: Fiacre (Irishman who sought exile in France. Near where he lived, a hotel was built called the Hotel-Saint-Fiacre. Horse-drawn carriages were rented out by this hotel. Residents called them "fiacres." Ergo, he's their saint.) Carpenters: Joseph (world's most famous carpenter) Charities: Vincent de Paul (founder of the Sisters of Charity) Children: St. Nicholas (who else?) Clothworkers: Homobonus (a cloth merchant) Cobblers: Crispin (a shoe maker) Cooks: Martha (served food to Christ) Cripples: Giles (accidentally shot by an arrow and crippled) Dancers: Vitus (because he is also the patron of sufferers of a nervous disorder called Sydenham's chorea, a.k.a. St. Vitus's Dance) Dairymaids: Brigid (her cows gave milk 3 times in one day--kind of a loaves-and-fishes thing. Incidentally, she also turned her bath water into beer for thirsty travelers. Yum!) Deacons: Laurence (deacon of Rome) Death, of a young child: the Holy Innocents (between 6 and 25 males under the age of two in Bethlehem who were ordered killed by Herod when he learned of Jesus' birth) Death, happy: Joseph (we don't hear anything about his death in the Bible, so we assume it was unremarkable) Death, sudden: Barbara (her father was struck by lightning after he disowned her for becoming a Christian) Dentists: Apollonia (martyr, tortured by having her teeth pulled out or knocked out) Desperation: Jude (Because his name resembles that of Judas, the betrayer of Christ, nobody ever invokes him for anything. So he's kind of bored. Consequently, he'll jump at the chance to help anybody, no matter how hopeless the cause.) Diplomats: Gabriel the Archangel (a messenger from God) Doctors: Luke (the evangelist, supposedly a physician) Dogs: Hubert (maybe because he's also a patron of hunters) Dying, the: Margaret of Antioch (she promised to help those who invoke her name on their deathbeds. Pretty smart, 'cause she's really popular now.) Ecologists: Francis of Assisi (remember, he liked animals) Ecumenists: Cyril (this is the guy who came up with the Cyrillic alphabet and was a missionary to Russia) Emigrants: Frances Cabrini (Italian, naturalized American citizen, and the first American saint) Epileptics: Dympna (when her body was exhumed, many epileptics and mentally-ill people were cured) Farmers: Isidore (a farmer) Farriers: Eloi (a metalworker) Fathers: Joseph (Christ's foster father) Firefighters: Agatha (tortured by fire) Fishermen Andrew/Peter/Simon (the famous "fishers of men") Florists: Dorothy (she was executed for refusing to marry. A young man laughed at her while she went to her death, and told her to send him fruit from the garden of paradise, to which she said she was going. An angel then appeared and gave him a basket of flowers and fruit. He converted.) Funeral directors: Joseph of Arimathea (provided a tomb for Christ) Gardeners: Fiacre (yes, the cab guy. Did I mention he was a gardener?) Girls: Catherine of Alexandria (a great all-around role model) Goldsmiths: Dunstan Grocers: Michael Gunners: Barbara (By extension from sudden death) Hairdressers: Mary Magdalen and Martin de Porres (Mary Magdalen is supposedly the woman who anointed Christ's head with expensive oil; Porres worked as a barber.) Headaches: Stephen (presumably, stoning hurts one's head) Heart patients: John of God (cared for the sick) Hermits: Antony (famous hermit) Homeless: Benedict Joseph Labre (a vagrant pilgrim type) Hopeless: Jude (see desperate cases) Horses: Hippolytus (because his name means "wild horse") Hospitals: Camillus (Founder of the Ministers of the Sick) Hoteliers: Julian (probably completely mythical) Housewives: Martha (was one, and served Christ in her home) Huntsmen: Eustace (supposedly saw a stag with a crucifix in its antlers, and converted) Infantrymen: Maurice (soldier who refused to kill innocent Christians and was executed for treason) Intestinal diseases: Erasmus (a patron of sailors, his symbol was a windlass; this was later misunderstood as an instrument of torture, so tradition came to believe he was martyred by disembowelment. Actually he was burned to death.) Invalids: Rocco (he caught the plague and was ministered to by a dog) Jewellers: Eloi (the metalworker) Journalists: Francis de Sales (an influential writer) Judges: Ivo of Brittany (lawyer) Jurists: John of Capistrano (a good preacher) Kings: Louis (Louis IX of France) Lawyers: Thomas More (who was martyred for refusing to support the law in which Henry VIII declared that the subjects must recognize the king's children by Anne Boleyn--whom he married contrary to Church law--as lawful successors to the throne. Because lawyers are supposed to stand by their principles even in the face of personal loss.) Leatherworkers: Crispin (the shoemaker) Lepers: Giles (who cared for one) Librarians: Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin) Lighthousemen: Clement (pope, martyred by being tossed into the sea with an anchor around his neck) Lost things: Antony of Padua (a novice who borrowed his psalter without his permission was obliged to return it because of a fearsome apparition) Lovers: Valentine (only because the day on which he was martyred is Feb. 14, which happens to coincide with the Roman Lupercalia festival, associated with fertility; there's also an old English tradition that birds mate on Feb. 14, maybe because of Lupercalia. Anyway, the festival stayed but is now associated with St. Valentine rather than mating birds or mating Romans.) Married women: Monica (the mother of St. Augustine. Since the great majority of canonized female saints are virgins, Monica stands out as one who wasn't. Incidentally, she isn't a saint because she was his mom, but because she worked so hard to convert him.) Midwives: Raymond Nonnatus (because he was extracted from the womb after the death of his mother--note the name Nonnatus meaning "not born") Miners: Barbara (again associated with the fear of sudden death) Missionaries: Francis Xavier (a very successful one) Monks: John the Baptizer (because he was an ascetic) Mothers: Blessed Virgin Mary, or Monica. (Mary is an obvious choice. For those mothers who didn't associate themselves with virginity, there was Monica the mother of St. Augustine.) Mountaineers: Bernard of Aosta (St. Bernard dogs are named after him) Musicians: Cecilia (married against her will, she supposedly sang about her intention to remain a virgin at her wedding-feast. She was martyred for refusing her new husband's advances.) Nuns: Blessed Virgin Mary. Nurses: Elizabeth of Hungary (a rich woman who dedicated her time to caring for the sick) Paralyzed: Osmund (because of miracles associated with him) Pawnbrokers: Nicholas (who supposedly paid dowries of three poor women so they wouldn't have to become prostitutes) Penitents: Mary Magdalene (supposedly a reformed prostitute) Philosophers: Catherine of Alexandria (a really smart lady) Pilgrims: James the Great (supposedly he preached in Spain and was buried there at Compostela. The pilgrimage of Santiago de la Compostela is very famous and the routes to it are well traversed every year. Hence he is associated with pilgrims in general.) Popes: Peter (Pope Numero Uno) Preachers: John Chrysostom (a successful one) Pregnant women: Margaret of Antioch (She promised that those who invoked her name would be protected from sicknesses during pregnancy and early childhood) Printers: Augustine (a very prolific writer) Prisoners: Leonard (because a prince who was a prisoner of war in the Crusades made an offering at a church consecrated to him in thanksgiving to God for his release) Publishers: John the Apostle (who was thought to have written the Gospel of John) Race relations: Peter Claver (who ministered to African slaves in Spain, providing for their physical and spiritual needs and nursing them in deplorable conditions) Radiologists: Michael Retreatants; Ignatius of Loyola (founded the Jesuits) Rheumatism: James the Great Scholars: Bede (a brilliant historian and translator) Schoolboys: John Bosco (a teacher of young boys; he believed in taking youth groups from urban areas out into the country so they could experience God in Nature) Schoolgirls: Ursula (a virgin martyr who might not even have existed-- compare this to John Bosco as a nice example of sexism in the early church) Scientists: Albert the Great (a renaissance man in the 1200's, he was a theologian and a scientist) Secretaries: Mark (because he recorded a Gospel) Servants: Zita (see Bakers) Shepherds: Bernadette (a simple shepherd girl who saw a vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France--now the most popular Catholic pilgrimage site after Rome) Sick: Michael Soldiers: George (a soldier) Speleologists: Benedict (I have no idea why. He founded the Benedictine Order.) Starving: Antony of Padua (who fed the hungry) Students (f): Catherine of Alexandria (a brilliant woman, who wouldn't marry the emperor because she was a "bride of Christ," who disputed successfully with 50 philosophers called in to convince her of the errors of Christianity, who protested the persecution of Christians. She was tortured on a wheel, which broke, injuring bystanders, so they beheaded her; supposedly milk flowed from her severed head instead of blood. Making her the patron saint, incidentally, of nursing mothers as well.) Students (m): Thomas Aquinas (theologian and teacher) Syphilis: Fiacre (yes, the cab guy again. He was reputed to be a fiery misogynist, so NATURALLY people associated him with venereal disease.) Tax collectors: Matthew (see accountants) Teachers: John Baptist de la Salle (founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools) Television: Clare of Assisi (She was only recently named the patron of television. I find this ironic because the order she founded, the Poor Clares, is a contemplative order. Maybe because her name--Chiara--means "light?") Thieves: Dismas (The traditional name, meaning "dying," given to the thief crucified next to Christ who said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom," and to whom Jesus promised salvation.) Throat illnesses: Blaise (because he supposedly healed a boy who was choking on a fish bone) Toothache: Apollonia (see Dentists) Travellers: Christopher (probably purely legendary. Name means "bearer of Christ." A big guy, he used to carry people across a river. One day a child came to him and asked to be carried across, but the child was so heavy that Christopher was bent under him. The child said to Christopher that he was Jesus, on whom the weight of the world rests.) University Professors: John of Kanti (professor of theology at the University of Cracow) Virgins: Blessed Virgin Mary Weavers: Maurice Widows: Monica (because she was one--remember, most female saints were virgins) Wine: Vincent (don't know--maybe because of the name?) Women in rotten relationships: Rita of Cascia (she wanted to be a nun but her parents made her get married to a guy who turned out to be very violent and abusive. She bore him two sons and endured the marriage for 18 years, at the end of which he was murdered--but not by her. Both sons died trying to avenge his death. After this, she became the nun she'd always wanted to be.) Workers: Joseph (the carpenter, who toiled to keep the child Jesus and his mother fed, clothed and sheltered) Writers: John the Evangelist (who wrote the Gospel) Youth: Aloysius Gonzaga (a precocious kid who became a Jesuit)