Well, it was my job! 
Well, Pope JPII made St. Isidore the patron saint of the internet, so I think the Vatican is definitely involved in the patron saint business.
The Vatican does indeed decide who gets to be patron saints. A no-brainer for bus drivers, , deciding that women with shitty husbands need more than one saint, etc.
OTOH, Saint Sebastian’s adoption as patron of homosexuals was obviously not the Vatican’s call. It goes back for hundreds of years, even before popularization by Yukio Mishima.
But then you wouldn’t have a martyr. Nothing fills the seats like a gen-you-ine martyr.
This also goes in this thread
Some school board members created sock accounts to push their own agenda.
[Fake profile] makes multiple posts advocating for board member Dr. Timothy Hess, speaking against Title IX regulations and the school board referendum, and urging residents not to vote for Stephanie Carlin in her reelection bid to the school board.
Another Facebook profile under the name “Missy Green” contains posts telling residents to vote “no” on the April Oshkosh Area School District referendum.
Their reply is little more than ‘it’s not illegal’ and it’s actually you guys that are the problem.
They released a joint statement that reads, “We believe the complaint filed by the citizen in question was nothing more than a partisan attempt to cause division among the board and censor views and opinions with which the complainant disagrees”
The statement continues, “We take the attempt to curtail our constitutionally protected freedom of speech very seriously and will resist with all our strength should it ever resurface again.”
When someone that lived in the 6th century becomes a saint, do they get all the knowledge about things like the internet? How long does that take? When do they learn English?
[Ma Ferguson*] If English was good enough for Jesus …[/Ma Ferguson]
*probably apocryphal but plausible enough, letting us know they exist in all eras, not just the current stupid one
As noted, Saint Barbara isn’t the patron saint of firefighters. That falls under my namesake, Saint Michael (well, technically. Michael is my middle name, and my father’s first name).
Saint Michael is the patron saint of rescue workers. Police officers, firefighters, EMTs and paramedics.
Well, around here St. Florian is venerated as the patron saint of firefighters. They are often called St. Florian’s disciples.
It would be fun to separate the saints discussion into it’s own thread. I could post the recipe for the cake made in honor of St. Honorius.
That’s interesting. I’ve never seen firefighters specifically excluded from Saint Michael. I’ve only ever seen all rescue workers lumped in together. I’ll defer to your cite, however.
And Saint Lawrence is the patron saint of barbecues, which is extremely appropriate for this forum.
Well, I don’t think St. Michael gets excluded as patron for firefighters, it’s just that like one saint can have several patronages, more than one saint can have patronage over the same subject. So be sure to pray to St. Michael and St. Florian to not get into a fire. 
I went looking and of two or three patron saint threads I think this one would fit what we have been talking about.
Sadly, on more than one occasion, I have actually heard, from different people, that English, specificaly KJV English, is the only language Jesus spoke. Of course that really does fly in the face of the actual text of said KJV, but who wants consistency in their irrationality?
I can see why chimney sweeps and firefighters are lumped together, but what’s with the soapmakers?
Well, soap can be made from ash.
If I may once again hijack this theology thread with a story about stupid MFers in the news, police in Bremerton, WA are looking for a driver who tailgated another motorist and then launched fireworks at her car.
For the cleaning up afterwards, of course.
Lye, an ingredient in soapmaking, is traditionally made from wood-ash, vis-a-vis, remnants from a fire.
Yer’ welcome.