This stained-glass window depicting St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica, graces the wall at St. Augustine Church in Washington July 25, 2019. St. Monica is the patron saint of motherhood, known for her resilience and dedication to prayer. (CNS photo/Elizabeth Bachmann)
By Guy Lee
Special to the Herald
Embracing the Communion of Saints, we Catholics traditionally favor those offering specific protection, assistance or guidance.
How well do the backgrounds, traits and interests of these patron saints match our prayers?
For the most popular patron saints the reason we seek their help is obvious. Fishermen pray to Peter, doctors Luke, the Irish Patrick, the French Joan of Arc, charities Vincent DePaul, and ulcer sufferers Job.
For celebrated multi-tasking saints, some matches are less transparent.
Joseph as the head of the Holy Family is the proper match as the patron of fathers and families, but his assisting house buyers and sellers, travelers and immigrants may be puzzling until we remember the Christmas detail of “No room at the inn.”
The most brilliant intellectual light of the church, Thomas Aquinas obviously supports academic endeavors. With a bit of reflection, his helping pencil makers makes sense.
Probably because most patron saints are unknown to most of us, the matches are even less transparent. But with some research, we can see the light.
Five saints are patrons of childbirth: Margaret of Antioch, Gerard Majella, Raymond Nonnatus, Leonard of Noblac, and Erasmus. We can assume that pregnancy was not a requisite match requirement; initial research shows everyone belonged to a religious order. But more research reveals that the first two saints did lose their mothers during their birth and the next two were credited with miraculously healing women in labor.
Last, we have mismatches.
Hubert of Liege and Vitus are asked both to protect dogs and to protect against dog bites.
Venantius is the patron saint of leaping, jumping and falling because after being whipped, burned, having his teeth knocked out and his jaw broken, and being tossed to the lions, he was thrown off a high cliff. Surviving his leap for faith, he was decapitated. For the sake of full transparency shouldn’t Venantius be renamed patron of the accident prone, if not of irony?
Matching venerable saints to contemporary activities can challenge and test the resourcefulness of our church.
Surfers wear St. Christopher (?-251) medals because he traditionally protects travelers.
Benedict of Menthon (1020-1081), the patron of the Alps, now safeguards snowboarders.
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) assists ecologists and environmentalists.
Januarius (272-305?) helps blood banks and blood donors. For the last 400 years a vial of his preserved blood has miraculously liquified at intervals in the Naples Cathedral.
Also helping blood donors is the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Thorn when she appeared in a burning rose bush on March 24, 1400, in Chalons, France. Aren’t blood donations voluntary humanitarian acts normally without health risks?
Joseph of Cupertino (1603-63) protects both aviators and astronauts because of his ability to levitate. Sticking pins in him and burning him did not ground him and diminish his love for flying. He landed only on the orders of his religious superior.
Some believe that because Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-97) called herself the little bird, she should protect pilots. She died six years before the Wright brothers’ first flight. As a result of the popularity of her autobiography many soldiers on both sides in World War I carried her picture for safety, and some reported seeing her comforting soldiers on the battlefield. Many French pilots then sought her protection.
Gabriel the Archangel, who informed Zacharias that he would be the father of John the Baptist and later announced, “Hail, Mary, full of grace,” assists television and telecommunication workers.
In 1925, Pope Pius XI assigned Frances of Rome (1384-1440) to the protection of car drivers because an angel kept her safe when she traveled by lighting the road before her with a lantern.
In 1957 Pope Pius XII named Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) the patron of television because one Christmas, when she was too ill to leave her bed, she saw and heard a Christmas Mass happening miles away. Shouldn’t she also be recognized as the originator and thus the perfect patron for livestreaming church services?
In 1997 St. John Paul II selected Bishop Isidore of Seville (560-636) as the patron of the internet. He was the author of a dozen major works on a wide range of topics. The scholar’s monumental work was a 20-volume encyclopedia, a compilation of Roman classical writings. It was used as a textbook for nine centuries. Perhaps John Paul saw that Isidore’s life-long mission to learn and teach could inspire and guide the internet to achieve its fullest potential.
For each contemporary activity, match or no match?
Lee is a parishioner at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa.
