# St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland. Does America Have a Patron Saint? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 17, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022 "2003-03-17T16:08:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [March 24, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/21 "2003-03-24T20:25:53Z")
Not just for countries, Mary is the patron of an awful lot of things, by default, as it were. As I mentioned in another post a while back, Mom ends up picking up the slack a lot. Whenever you hear of “Our Lady of…” or “The Virgin of…”, that’s Mary. ---
**Author:** ![rhinostylee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@rhinostylee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhinostylee)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/22 "2003-03-24T23:25:23Z")
Saint Uncle Sam That’s not very funny, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/23 "2003-04-13T16:28:52Z")
Bibliophage: Admonition accepted. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/24 "2003-04-14T04:07:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HeyHomie \* > **Here’s a follow-up question: St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland because [legend has it that] he forced the snakes out of Ireland (or forced the pagans out of Ireland, depending on which legend suits you).** That’s the popular legend. It’s not why he’s on the Roman and Orthodox calendars. He is on the official calendars because he was a great regularizer of Church practices in Ireland, securing its existence and administration from that point onwards. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/25 "2003-04-14T04:09:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terrifel \* > \*\*St. Herman, of course, made sure that every Orthodox mission had a laboratory in the basement and a dragon under the stairs. \*\* What is this rubbish? Why do you go out of your way to insult the Orthodox Church? ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/26 "2003-04-14T04:16:26Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by HeyHomie_ **A follow-up to the follow-up: does _every_ nation in the world have a patron saint? How about non-Christian nations? Is there a patron saint of Japan (where around 2% of the population is Catholic)? How about Saudi Arabia (where around 0% of the population is Catholic)?** Among the Orthodox, the most likely candidate would be St. Nicholas of Japan, the first Bishop of an Orthodox see in Japan. He came from Russia to Japan in 1861, while Christianity was still illegal. Christianity was legalized in Japan in 1872 and he was consecrated Bishop of Tokyo (I think) in 1878. During the Russo-Japanese war, his loyalty remained with his Japanese flock. There are several saints who came from and lived in Arabia, but this was before Islam appeared. Thus the modern state of Saudi Arabia would have no explicit patrons among the Orthodox. > [@](#): > > \*\*Finally, what about brand new nations? Will Serbia & Montenegro be assigned their own patron saint after a while? Or do they retain the patron saint of their old land (in this case Yugoslavia)? \*\* Serbia’s patron saint has always been Saint Sava–of course, he is Orthodox. I do not recall if Montenegro has one. ---
**Author:** ![Mira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5ac83/32.png) [@Mira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mira)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022/27 "2003-04-14T04:55:56Z")
I’m sure not all the countries in the world have their own patron saints, it’s not as if the Vatican assigns them one when they declare their independence. [This](http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pst00993.htm) site says Yugoslavia had St. Cyril and St. Methodius as patron saints, but that was probably a pretty generic choice because they were apostles of all the Slavs anyhow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-patrick-is-the-patron-saint-of-ireland-does-america-have-a-patron-saint/162022.md?page=1)