# Oddball Patron Saints **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 27, 2008, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397 "2008-08-27T08:01:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/41 "2025-02-07T14:02:18Z")
It was a Jewish friend who introduced me to **The Penguin Dictionary of Saints**. I promptly picked up my own copy, and have spent many happy hours reading through the listings, which are by no means exhaustive. He thought some of the entries and connections were hilarious. One that particularly stood out was that Saint Agatha, for instance, is the patron saint of bell founders. The reason is interesting - she was supposedly tortured and martyred by having her breasts cut off. So, in medieval art, she was depicted holding her breasts on a plate. The illiterate being instructed by these images took them for bells. She’s not the only saint who got her association through misinterpreted artwork. Sant Erasmus (also known as St. Elmo) is the patron saint of mariners because he was depicted with a ship’s wheel. Well, it looked like a ship’s wheel. It was really the windlass that was used to wind out his intestined when he was tortured by being eviscerated. He ended up as the one after whom _St. Elmo’s Fire_ – the electrostatic discharge also known as the _corposant_, seen on the tips of spars and masts of a ship in appropriate weather conditions – was named, all because he attributes were misinterpreted. My favorite of these is Saint Wilgefortis, who is depicted with a beard. The legend is that she was slated to marry a pagan prince, and prayed to God to somehow prevent the marriage. God, who evidently has a bizarre sense of humor, miraculously gave her a beard, which put off the prince so that he refused. And her father had her crucified. The legend is thought to have grown up around church artwork depicting Jesus crucified in a long gown, rather than the usual loincloth. This caused the uninitiated , mistaking the gown for a woman’s dress, to ask why a bearded woman was being crucified. Hence the legend. She, and other saints with the same legend , was prayed to by women who wanted to avoid unwanted marriages, like the British St. Oncomber/Uncumber, whose name is pretty obviously derived from “unencumber” Then there’s the story of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, which is pretty obviously a Christian retelling of the story of Gautama Siddartha the Buddha. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/42 "2025-02-07T14:21:16Z")
One more weird type of saint – the _Cephalophore_, or Saint Who Caries His Own Head (After It’s Been Cut Off). St. Denis, the patron saint of Paris, is one of these. So is Nicasius of Rheims and Aphrodisius of Alexandria. I’ve long had a feeling that these legends were inspired by artwork, too – but broken artwork, in this case. There’s a very high _bas relief_ in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum here in Boston that depicts Salome with the head of John the Baptist on a “charger” (a big plate, basically). But another character in the scene has had his head broken off – the relief is so high that individual heads and arms and the like protrude vulnerably from the surface. The head of this character finally succumbed to the odds and broke off. And there you had a headles figure, still upright, and figureless head on a plate. It’s not a big step from there to the figure taking the head from the plate and walking off with it. I don’t say that this particular carving inspired the legend, but I do suggest that one like it might have. > **[Cephalophore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalophore)** > > A cephalophore (from the Greek for 'head-carrier') is a saint who is generally depicted carrying their severed head. In Christian art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading. Depicting the requisite halo in this circumstance offers a unique challenge for the artist: some put the halo where the head used to be, and others have the saint carrying the halo along with the head. Associated legends often tell of the saint standing and carrying thei... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/43 "2025-02-07T15:01:08Z")
Here’s a listing of Patron Saints, alphabetically by what they’re the patron saints _of_ > **[Patron Saints A-Z - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online](https://www.catholic.org/saints/patron.php)** > > Patron saints are chosen as special protectors or guardians over areas of life. These areas can include occupations, illnesses, churches, countries, causes -- anything that is important to us. The earliest records show that people and churches were... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/44 "2025-02-07T15:20:44Z")
St. Clare is the patron saint of television and television writers. Why?: > [@](#): > > St. Clare was designated as the patron saint of television in 1958 by Pope Pius XII, because when St. Clare was very ill, she could not attend mass and was reportedly able to see and hear it on the wall in her room. > **[St. Clare of Assisi - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online](https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=215)** > > St. Clare of Assisi was born in Assisi on July 16, 1194, as Chiara Offreduccio, the beautiful eldest daughter of Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortolana. Tradition says her father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman... ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/45 "2025-02-07T15:30:00Z")
Right now, I’m thinking of St. Teresa of Avila - that patron saint of headaches. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/46 "2025-02-07T16:03:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > My favorite of these is Saint Wilgefortis, who is depicted with a beard. The legend is that she was slated to marry a pagan prince, and prayed to God to somehow prevent the marriage. God, who evidently has a bizarre sense of humor, miraculously gave her a beard, which put off the prince so that he refused. I remember St. Wilgefortis from one of Robertson Davies’ novels. He had a character who was an expert in little-known saints and this story is the one that stuck in my brain. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/47 "2025-02-07T16:05:31Z")
My go to these days is St. Jude, patron saint of hopeless causes. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/48 "2025-02-07T16:08:21Z")
(Bear in mind that this is folklore, and the stories of these saints get adapted to whatever purpose the tellers want) Saint Audrey was a princess who became a nun, yet still wore her necklace under wimple. God, being rather demanding as fathers in-law go, hit her with cancer where it rested on her body (either throat or breast). Rejecting prideful bling, her order became lacemakers, and so cheap fabric and later cheap anything including behavior was called “tawdry” from St. Audrey. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/49 "2025-02-08T04:00:04Z")
St. Erasmus (St. Elmo’s Fire). Quite the story with this one. He was tortured & chained in prison, but an angel helped him escape. He went on to baptize a lot of people. He was then rolled down a hill in a barrel filled with spikes, it didn’t kill him. Apparently he was then coated in pitch and lit on fire. I guess at that point, he was saying, really, that’s all you’ve got? Well, they finally got him when his abdomen was slit open. He is patron of stomach aches, stomach issues and labor pains. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/50 "2025-02-08T23:03:20Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > St. Blaise is the patron saint of ear, nose and throat diseases, and also of wool combers. His feast was only a few days ago (Groundhog’s Day). It’s tradition on that day (or the nearest Sunday) for the priest (and nowadays, a few lay volunteers) to bless the members of the congregation by holding a crossed pair of candles to each’s throat and saying “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God shield you from every disease of the throat, and every other ailment”. > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Rejecting prideful bling, her order became lacemakers, Lacemaking was also a tradition among the sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph. It was one of the few “respectable” professions open to women at the time, and so was taught by the nuns to the widows and orphans they cared for. They’d also sit around lacemaking in the evenings after their daily rounds, while talking about their days. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/51 "2025-02-08T23:57:31Z")
I covered him seven entries up from yours ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/52 "2025-02-09T00:30:04Z")
Sorry didn’t mean to repeat, I assure you it was accidental, I saw the thread & he came to mind. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/53 "2025-02-09T00:55:38Z")
No problem, and not surprising. I’ve been guilty of it, too. And you included more details than I did. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/54 "2025-02-09T01:08:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Gautama Siddartha The angels did a few improvements along the way. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/55 "2025-02-10T10:00:45Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > she remained at prayer for several hours until she died of ecstasy. Taking the “ecstacy” part a little more literally, there is a patron saint of illegal drugs. > **[Jesús Malverde](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jes%C3%BAs_Malverde)** > > Jesús Malverde (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced \[xeˈsus malˈbeɾde\] lit. 'bad-green Jesus'; born Jesús Juárez Matzo Campos, 24 December 1870 – 3 May 1909), commonly referred to as the "generous bandit", "angel of the poor", or the "narco-saint", was a Mexican bandit and folklore hero in the Mexican state of S He was of Yo... He covers: Mexican drug cartels, drug trafficking, outlaws, bandits, robbers, thieves, smugglers, people in poverty. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/56 "2025-02-10T10:27:49Z")
Arnoldus the Strong and Gambrinas are the patron saints of beer and brewing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/57 "2025-02-10T23:55:55Z")
Malverde probably didn’t exist, but then, it’s not like that’s unusual among saints. Christopher probably didn’t exist, either, and Brigid is probably just a pre-Christian Celtic goddess with the serial numbers filed off. And Veronica probably did exist, at least if the Gospels are considered definitive, but there’s no canonical record of the miracle she’s named for, and just playing the odds, her name was probably Mary. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/58 "2025-02-11T01:50:45Z")
Especially since her name translates to “true image” in Latin ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/59 "2025-02-11T03:12:32Z")
Right, exactly. The Gospels tell us that “one of the women” wiped Jesus’s face. They don’t tell us which of the women, but an awful lot of the women in Jesus’s inner circle seem to have been named “Mary”, so it was probably one of them. Tradition (i.e., not the Gospels) tell us that, when whoever-it-was wiped his face, an image of his face was left on the cloth. And since this would be the only true image of Jesus, not influenced by some mortal artist’s interpretation, the woman who did the wiping is referred to as “Veronica”, even though that’s almost certainly not what her friends called her. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/60 "2025-02-11T09:44:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And since this would be the only true image of Jesus There is debate; the [Shroud Of Turin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin) being purported as the only image of Jesus. I have serious doubts. The shroud of Turin is extanct but has a dubious history. Mary’s handkerchief is lost to history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397.md?page=4)