Patron Saint

A guy like that has to be level-headed.

"Holy Hannah!" shouted Captain America in Secret Defenders #6. Who, you ask? Why, "Holy Hannah" is better known as St. Hannah of the Funnybooks, patron saint to Golden Age superheroes (As opposed to "Holy #%&* !", patron saint of '90s superheroes.)

— Marvel Year In Review 1993

Some of us are believed to be closer to the divine than others. In Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and some forms of Protestantism, these special people are called "saints" and they can be called upon to intercede and/or create miracles on our behalf.

The process of being named a saint is canonization (or, in some branches of Orthodox Christianity, glorification), a long and complicated process. Note that canonization does not make one a saint, as only God can do that. Canonization is merely the process by which the Church recognizes that a person has become a saint. Many saints may exist who have not been canonized. In fact, Orthodoxy defines a saint as anyone who was accepted by God into Heaven^note that's why the Roman Catholic Church refers to the continued connection between you and your loved ones who've gone on to heaven as the "Communion of Saints" but not all saints will be recognized by the living because not all saints will have miracles granted in their names by God. For more information, just look up the relevant keyword(s) on The Other Wiki.

Note that Catholics and Orthodox do not offer "worship" (latria) to the saints; what the saints receive is doulia or "honor" — or, in the case of the Queen of the Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, hyperdoulia or "extreme honor". One does not pray to the saints but rather asks them to pray for you. Roman Catholic theology calls this intercession: Being the Boss of Heaven, only God has the power to grant prayer requests, but one can ask a saint in heaven to lend his assistance in expediting the process. Apparently, Heaven still has a lot to work on fixing red tape within the Celestial Bureaucracy.

For some of the most commonly referenced Saints in fiction, see Patron Saints. Real-life examples should be put there.

In fiction, often treated as the monotheistic equivalent of Odd Job Gods.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Saint Francis Xavier tends to be referenced once in a while in anime because he went to Japan to evangelize the heathens and generally speaking piss off Tokugawa Ieyasu. There's an alleged descendant of his who appears in Samurai Champloo, for example. Xavi in the Sengoku Basara games is also based on Xavier.
• Saint Francis (and Jesuit monks in particular) are posited as the origin of the Kappa myth in the author's notes of Hell Teacher Nube.

Arts

• Patron saints were common subjects for artists throughout The Middle Ages and The Renaissance (as in the page image of the "Wilton Diptych,"◊ which shows SS. Edmund the Martyr, Edward the Confessor, and John the Baptist patronizing King Richard II of England). Often non-contemporaneous saints are shown associating in sacra conversazione, each identified by holding or standing near his or her own special emblem, often the method of his or her martyrdom — e.g., St. Catherine holding her wheel or St. Bartholomew holding his own flayed skin.
• This tradition is continued in the (mostly Roman Catholic) phenomena of holy medals and holy cards and in the (mostly Eastern Orthodox) phenomenon of icons.

Ballads

• The earliest ballads frequently mention Robin Hood's devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Comic Books

• In Hellboy: The Nature of the Beast, St. Leonard the Hermit and his slaying of the St. Leonard Worm are alluded to when the eponymous Hellboy fights a similar creature, and just like in the legends, Hellboy's blood also causes flowers to spring up from the earth. Later, in Box Full of Evil, St. Dunstan is mentioned, and his image used, in connection with a demon he had defeated and imprisoned centuries earlier.

Fan Works

• Shakedown Shenanigans: Before piloting the Bajor out of drydock for the shakedown cruise, Lieutenant Park Jin-Soo kisses a medallion of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, the patron saint of pilots and astronauts in real life.

Film — Live-Action

• In The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, Victor Pivert (Louis de Funès) is lost in the French countryside with his car being turned over on his boat on a river and with his Jewish driver Salomon (who just got fired) leaving him there. He prays to Saint Anthony of Padua in order to find a tow truck and a driver^note Good choice - Anthony is the saint of finding things, and also the saint of miracles, as he did so many in his lifetime (a Catholic one, specifically), then bumps into a building with lights on and thanks the saint.
• Simon Templar in The Saint (1997) takes all of his aliases from the names of saints, including Martin De Porres, Bruno Hartenfaust, and Thomas More. He also references some of the things necessary for a person to be considered a saint (a few steps are left out, either as a result of carelessness or Rule of Drama), and manages at least the "three miracles" part.
• This is Spın̈al Tap: David St. Hubbins' surname is said to be derived from the patron saint of quality footwear.^note Ss. Crispin and Crispian in real life, but Rule of Funny reigns here.
• There are loads of saints in Millions because the protagonist is a bit obsessed with them.
• The martyrdom of St. Sebastian is symbolic in Lilies. Sebastian's role as a gay icon (see Real Life) is relevant here.
• A St. Christopher statue in a car turned into a plot point in Crash.
• In the Hellboy film, a statue of St. Dionysius was used as a prison for the monster Sammael, and later a finger bone of St. Jude is used to ward off the same monster.
• Angels in the Outfield (the original version) has St. Gabriel's Home For Orphan Girls. He's got a good-sized statue in the reception area and the little visionary Bridget says "He's our patron saint."
• Brother Sun Sister Moon tells the story of St. Francis and St. Clare.
• The Song of Bernadette is about St. Bernadette Soubirous and her visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. She's the patron saint of sick and poverty-stricken people. There is a running gag about St. Christopher medals toward the end of the film.
• There are several films about little St. Therese of Lisieux (the one with the roses). She's the patron saint of people with TB and AIDS.
• The Miracle Of Our Lady Of Fatima is about Mary's visitations in Portugal to Lucia Santos and her cousins, now St. Francisco and Waif Prophet St. Jacinta Marto. Canonized on May 13, 2017, they are the youngest saints other than some of the early Christian martyrs.^note Lucia lived to be 97 and wrote many books, articles, diaries and letters, so examining her life to be sure she qualifies as a named, recognized saint is obviously going to take a little time.

Literature

• Nicholas van Rijn (A.D. 2376 to c. 2500) is a fictional merchant who plays a central role in Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories. He swears by Saint Dismas (the Good Thief, appropriately), and has expressed the intention of burning candles in offering (to which another character responded "The Saint had best get it in writing").
  • When things go badly, van Rijn has been known to go over to his shrine to St. Dismas and snuff candles out in a pointed manner.
• Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers is about a Canadian historian researching Blessed Catherine Tekakwitha, "the Lily of the Mohawks". She was a "Blessed" (beatified) at the time, but was finally canonized October 21, 2012, and her ceremony in Rome was attended by thousands of Native Americans from the U.S. and Canada. Her Mohawk name is Kateri, pronounced Kah-tee-ri. She's one of the patron saints of ecology and environmental issues.
• Christopher Stasheff has several stories based on the fictional patron saint of engineers, St. Vidicon, who martyred himself to ensure a key speech by the Pope would make it to air. He is invoked to defend against Finagle.
• The aforementioned St. Vidicon is referenced in the 1632-verse. Despite being fictional in-universe, he is venerated (due to the circumstances of his martyrdom) by radio technicians as the holy helper against the ravages of Murphy, half in earnest and half as an in-universe lampshading/jab at up-time Catholics who continue to venerate saints who are either still alive in down-time or will never be born. When three radio techs petition the local cardinal for permission to found a holy order dedicated to St. Vidicon, he is less than amused.
• The first act of A Canticle for Leibowitz centers on the canonization of the title character, a Jewish technician who became a Roman Catholic and founded an order of monks to recover lost knowledge After the End. In time, with the re-emergence of technology, St. Leibowitz becomes patron saint of electricians. There is also a reference to Saint Raul the Cyclopean, patron of mutants. Precisely why they have one of these instead of adding mutants to the remit of the patron saint/s of people with birth defects is not enlarged upon, but may have something to do with the Fantastic Racism against mutants that the Church has forcibly come out against.
• St. Sebastian's connection to gay men led Yukio Mishima, in his autobiographical novel Confessions of a Mask, to write a lengthy "awakening" moment in front of a picture of the saint.
• A heavily fictionalized St. George is the hero of the first book of The Faerie Queene.
• The English fairy tale of "The Seven Champions of Christendom" depicts the patron saints of seven prominent Christian nations as knights errant: St. George (England), St. Denis (France), St. Patrick (Ireland), St. Anthony [of Padua] (Italy), St. Andrew (Scotland), St. James [the Greater] (Spain), and St. David (Wales).
• In Space Cadet (Heinlein), when persuading the hero that an apparent accident was a real one and not a put-on job to scare the candidates, someone asks him whether he has ever heard of St. Barbara, explains that she is the patron of those in dangerous occupations, and tells him that if he goes to the chapel dedicated to her, he will find that the priest is saying Mass for those who died in the accident. This convinces him.
• In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye, a statue of St. Barbara aboard a spaceship has carefully constructed fans so the candles will continue to burn right in freefall.
• In Cell, by Stephen King, Denise successfully helps Clay find a necessary item by invoking St. Anthony of Padua's help^note Because of his phenomenal memory, his fellow Franciscan monks used to rely on him to help them find things they'd misplaced. As a saint, he's popular as a finder of lost people, material things and even spiritual or emotional states. Clay himself borrows this idea at the ending.
• In John C. Wright's Orphans of Chaos, Boggins informs Amelia, "I, for example, am employed directly by Saint Dymphna's School and College for Destitute Children." Which is to say, after the saint of the insane and emotionally disturbed. (See below.)
• In Mary Stewart's This Rough Magic, St. Spiridon, the patron saint of Corfu (where the story takes place), is invoked by several characters and features in Sir Julian's theory of the origins of the story of The Tempest.
• In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files story "Aftermath", Murphy prays to St. Jude before her attack.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, Logistilla's home is on the island of St. Dismas.
• The Speaker for the Dead branch of Orson Scott Card's Enderverse includes the Order of the Children of the Mind of Christ (married but celibate monks who run schools on most Catholic colonies). It was founded by St. Angelo of Moctezuma (who in traditional Church logic would therefore be the Order's patron saint), an eccentric monk whose death Andrew had spoken 2000 years before the events of Speaker for the Dead.
• St. Expeditus, a cult saint not recognized by the Church, is referenced in the Father Koesler mystery, Death Wears a Red Hat, wherein he is noted both as the patron saint of avoiding procrastination and hurrying decisions and also in his role in Santeria of being used in rituals to dispatch foes.
• In Michael Flynn's Spiral Arm novel On The Razor's Edge, the captive Mearana, a harper, invokes Cecelia, and then Jude — music, and impossible causes.
• In Ruth Frances Long's The Treachery of Beautiful Things, Jenny had been sent to a St. Martha's after her brother vanished and she insisted the forest had swallowed him. (Patron saint of housewives. Perhaps to indicate she should settle down more sedately.)
• According to Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle, Agatha's paternal grandmother, for her act of raising the Heterodyne Boys to be heroes rather than monsters like everyone else in their family, eventually killing her husband to save them and being killed by Castle Heterodyne in return, was canonized as the patron saint of Those Who Have To Put Up With Sparks.
• In the Harry Potter series, the Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is under the patronage of Saint Mungo, who, despite his peculiar name, is an honest-to-God patron saint from Scotland, also known as Saint Kentigern (c.550-612).
• Dante is put on his journey through The Divine Comedy by two female saints, the historical Lucia and Dante's idealized version of Beatrice, a frequent subject of his love poetry. Beatrice is more directly involved in Dante's journey when she sends Virgil to get Dante and then guides the poet by herself through Heaven, but she only intervenes at all because Saint Lucia informed her of how far Dante had strayed. Plus, Lucia at one point carries Dante through Purgatory to speed up his lengthy trek.
• In the Rivers of London novel The Hanging Tree, Peter prays to the patron saint of policemen, Sir Samuel.
• There are a couple of references in The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett to St Eric, the patron saint of Real Cats. The book's theory that Cats Found in Lorries are all the same cat, who is trying to get somewhere, goes on to suggest that it might be a feline Wandering Jew, cursed by Eric to "go away and never come back" after he tripped over it. In the chapter speculating about cats being bred for the same roles as dogs, the St Eric is the counterpart to the St Bernard. (There's a real St Eric, but he was a 12th-century Swedish king, while the one in the book was a 4th century Greek bishop.)

Live-Action TV

• 30 Rock: When Jack and his girlfriend Elisa argue in a church, he makes a comment about wanting to have sex with her. She scolds him for saying this in front of a statue of Santa Lucia, the patron saint of judgmental statues.
• Leverage:
  • Saint Nicholas' other patronage (that of thieves — more accurately, repentant thieves) is mentioned, where Sophie tells Parker (who is only aware of the Santa Claus version) that St. Nick is also the patron saint of thieves.
  • Nathan is also handed a Brigid (female patron of Ireland) medal in one episode.
• Joan of Arcadia is a Whole-Plot Reference to Joan of Arc.
• Like Joan of Arcadia, Wonderfalls was inspired by Joan of Arc's story.
• In one episode, House shows his vast knowledge about patron saints when he spots a Saint Nicholas medallion on a female patient :
  House: [The patron saint of] seamen, merchants, archers, prostitutes, and prisoners ...You don't have the skin of a seaman, the fingers of an archer, the clothes of a merchant, or the attitude of an ex-con . So, just leaves one left.
• Life on Mars:
  • Sam Tyler (who may or not be a time traveler) wears a St. Christopher medal.
  • And appropriately enough, Gene Hunt (the copper to end all coppers) wears a St. Michael medal.
• MythBusters:
  • The Busters consider MacGyver their patron saint.
  • Brought up in an earlier episode, where Adam shows the proper procedure for making a ballistics gel dummy (after showing an even earlier attempt which he'd screwed up). While waiting for the dummy to set, Adam suggested:
    Adam: Pray. I don't know to whom. Is there a patron saint of ballistics gel?
• Alton Brown regarded MacGyver as his patron saint first, in a 2001 episode of Good Eats, "Where There's Smoke, There's Fish." (he constructed a fish smoker out of a cardboard box... go figure.)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer has the villains celebrate the Night of St. Vigeous, the patron saint of vampires. Since vampires are basically Always Chaotic Evil, one has to wonder why the church approved of that one.
• During an episode of 30 Rock, Jack is having a fight with his devoutly Catholic girlfriend Elisa (played by Selma Hayek) while in a church.
  Elisa: How dare you say such things in front of the statue of Santa Lucia, the patron saint of judgmental statues!
• On Orange Is the New Black, Gloria practices Santeria, which she describes as "Catholic plus." Her backstory involves a prayer to St. Anthony of Padua and a fire that destroyed her abusive boyfriend.
• In The Librarians, the Saint of Thieves is a supernatural entity that is the brother of Santa Claus (possibly a reference to St. Nicholas being both). There's plenty of Sibling Rivalry between them. The former even has a holiday celebrated by thieves around the world — Thankstaking. He also has power over thieves, such as Compelling Voice.

Memes

• During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians created a memetic icon symbolizing their resistance called "Saint Javelin", an icon of Mary Magdalene carrying a FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Armor rocket launcher.

Music

• The (self-proclaimed) patron saint of the denial, American Idiot's St. Jimmy.^*And don't wear it out!
• The Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church in San Francisco has officially canonized the jazz great and celebrates a three-hour mass based on his music every Sunday.

Myths & Religion

• The patron saint of speedy delivery, prayed to by people in a hurry for something, is the possibly apocryphal Saint Expeditus. The story goes, he was a Roman soldier that was considering converting to Christianity; the Devil appeared to him as a crow and suggested he put it off until tomorrow, and Expeditus stomped the shit out of the crow and converted then and there. However, all of this may be completely fictional (as opposed to partially); some say that he was created when a crate of saints' relics showed up at a nunnery with no label except "Expeditus", as in "expedited delivery"; the nuns, not being familiar with the Medieval post office traditions, thought it was the saint's name. Nobody's sure if any of that is true, but St. Expeditus has a big following in Voodoo. That statue is in a nice Afro-American Catholic church in New Orleans, quite near the Louis II cemetery where Marie Laveau is buried.
• Another fun saint is Santa Muerte — Saint of Death, or Our Lady of the Holy Death. She's a syncresis of Catholic traditions and local indigenous religions of Mexico, and her cult is increasingly popular amongst the lower classes.
• And then there's the completely apocryphal Saint Josephat, an Indian prince that was shocked from his high-end life the first time he saw a poor beggar; he became an ascetic but found it unrewarding, and finally converted to Christianity. Replace "converted to Christianity" with "achieved enlightenment" and you get the story of Siddartha Gautama — the Buddha. The story had gradually made its way from India to Europe, where the word "boddhisattva" was gradually morphed into "Josephat".
• Things that never happened have occasionally been said to take place on Saint Tib's Day or the Feast of Saint Nunca.
• Saint Grobian is a fictional patron of vulgar language.
• St. Drogo is the patron saint of unattractive people, coffee shops, and unattractive people in coffee shops.

Poetry

• John Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" is based on the superstition that girls could foresee their husbands on St. Agnes's Eve.

Radio

• A Prairie Home Companion:
  • At Lake Wobegon, the annual blessing of the animals on St. Francis's feast is a trial for the priest, who is allergic to animals.
  • Not to mention the Catholic church in Lake Wobegon is named Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility.

Tabletop Games

• In Hell On Earth, the Templars have their own pantheon of Patron Saints (that includes, among others, St. John Wayne and St. Eliot Ness).
• A supplement for Shadowrun mentioned how religion mixed with all the magic wandering around, especially shamanic stuff. The main shamanic influence is Native American, but that doesn't leave the Christians out. Shamans even have them available as variations of totems.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The Imperial Cult, which is really just Catholicism IN SPACE! has numerous saints, one of the more famous being Saint Sabbat, and Ollanius Pius, patron saint of Guardsmen.^note Ironically, Ollanius himself actually was Catholic, or at least practiced a Catholic-descended religion; the last surviving practitioner, in fact
  • Living Saints are also sometimes produced by the Sisters of Battle.
  • The God-Emperor may or may not have been Saint George.
• Indiana Jones is often referred to as the patron saint of player characters: "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go!"
• Dungeons & Dragons: In the Book of Exalted Deeds, sainthood is something a character can earn in-game. By the standards of the book, it's ridiculously hard to earn in-game (easier if you're starting high level and can write the requirements into your backstory).
• Ars Magica being set in Europe circa 1220, there are a number of active Saints (most notably Francis of Assisi). Furthermore, two supplements, "Realms of Power: The Divine" and "The Church", include rules for allowing players to petition their Patron Saint (or any other) for aid by expending Faith.

Video Games

• Darklands has the saints, and their areas of expertise, as the foundation of their magic system based on prayer.
• inFAMOUS 2: In the Good Ending, Cole is revered as one by the citizens of New Marais
• The town of Tassing in Pentiment has two: a former Roman legionary, St. Moritz, and a local peasant woman, St. Tasia, both of whom converted from paganism early in the history of Christendom. A shrine at the monastery hosts a relic purported to be Moritz's arm, and attracts many pilgrims.

Web Comics

• St Dyphn(i)a Academy — The students in attendance should have realized that something was very wrong with a school named after the patron saint of the insane.^note It's really St. Dymphna, and she's supposed to protect and aid the mentally ill. This probably started because her incestuous father is said to have become obsessed with her to the point of being delusional and confusing her with her mother.
• In Silent Hill: Promise the protagonist Vanessa swears by an increasing number of saints, in different situations.
• In Squid Row, Randi buys a statue of St. Luke, patron of artists, and buries it in her houseplant.
• Roommates and its 'verse^note Girls Next Door, Down the Street, Superintendent, Meanwhile Upstairs etc. has the Saint Jude university, where most of the cast works or studies. Kinda fitting how much concentrated fail the place has, beginning with the main characters, who are mostly antagonists from different stories trying to begin a new, more normal life. Lost Causes indeed. Also Javert tells James to "Go St. George on" the dragon here.
• In Girl Genius, Teodora Heterodyne was canonized as St. Teodora of Transylvania, Patron Saint of Those Who Fall Afoul Of Sparks after her death at the hands of Castle Heterodyne. She was canonized because she managed to raise the children of a Heterodyne as decent people, with her children, William and Barry Heterodyne, being known in-universe as the heroic Heterodyne Boys.

Web Orignal

• The Whiskey Vault: Invoked as the title given to the people who are the next step up from "Magnificent Bastard" in their contributions of whiskies to the show. Rex and Daniel will announce them with a sing-songy "[X], you patron saint of whiskey!", a cheesy graphic will appear, and they will do something silly like Daniel circling in place while clinking his glass against the bottle for a bell-like tone.
• TV Tropes:
  • There is a Patron Saint of Television, Saint Clare of Assisi, and Saint Isidore, Patron Saint of the Internet.
  • Also, "X show is the patron saint of this trope", to the delight of some and the despair of others.
  • A patron saint of our Wiki would be probably named Saint-Tropez. We already gave that role to Joss Whedon.
  • We ourselves have designated Godzilla as the Patron Saint of Collateral Damage.
• Every episode of The Hidden Almanac discusses a saint whose feast day it currently is. All of them are fictional, some more fantastical than others, and a few are references to celebrities or historical personages of the real world.
• Parodied by The Babylon Bee, which reacted to the record-setting TV audiences that Caitlin Clark drew during the 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament with "Caitlin Clark Canonized As Saint After Performing Miracle Of Making Women's Basketball Watchable". The story ended by claiming the Catholic Church was set to declare Clark as the "Matron Saint of Unwatchable Sports".

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