# Oddball Patron Saints

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/61 "2025-02-11T09:56:21Z")

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> [@Oy](#):
>
> > [@](#):
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> > > [@](#):
> > >
> > > Saint Isidore of the seventh century is the patron saint of the Internet. Presumably this came about because he wrote an encyclopedia of natural history in which fact and fancy was so confused that it was of little value. A dozen or so years ago this seemed appropriate as it was much more difficult to search effectively than it is now.
> 
> Whoever assigns these things has a great sense of humor!

Greetings, self in the distant past!!

And now I think it’s getting appropriate once again. Google Search doesn’t seem to work as well as it did a few years ago.

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/62 "2025-02-11T09:58:04Z")

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This thread is like those saints you hear about with incorruptible corpses.

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/63 "2025-02-11T10:11:32Z")

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I learned about this only recently.

During the persecution of Christians ordered by the Emperor Valerian in the mid-200s, Saint Lawrence was the custodian of the Roman church’s funds which were intended for the poor. Seeing what was about to happen, he gave away as much of the money as possible, and when the prefect arrived and demanded that he hand over the funds, he brought forth instead a crowd of the poor to whom he’d already given away the money.

The enraged prefect ordered a gridiron to be set up over hot coals and Lawrence to be placed on it. After some time the saint announced, “I’m well done on this side, turn me over!”

And so Saint Lawrence is the [patron saint of cooks, chefs, and comedians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lawrence#Martyrdom).

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**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 11, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-patron-saints/461397/64 "2025-02-11T13:01:11Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> And since this would be the only true image of Jesus,

There are other traditions about similar miraculous images of the Face of Jesus, besides the legend of Veronica and the Shroud of Turin. I’ve stumbled a cross some in that Dictionary of Saints.

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