Today in Holidays

Today is the Feast of All Saints Day, as anyone who knows the history of Halloween knows it is the All Hallows that yesterday is the eve of. As I stated last year it’s a day for all the saints that aren’t officially known as saints (and those that got moved off the calendar of saints to make room of others.) Because of this it is hard to write about the people that this holiday is for. So the next week of entries will be the life stories of all my relatives that I am sure are honored in this holiday. Just kidding!! As tomorrow is All Souls’ Day to be fair I then would have to spend the rest of the month talking about everyone that was a jerk, but God still loves them. No once again I will be talking about patron saints. This time more on people that became the patron of something centuries after they lived and one that is only unofficially the patron of this. (Note: Now a day basically a saint becomes a patron of something either as it was part of their life, or enough people want them to be the patron of blank and the pope OKs it.)

St. Isidore of Seville (d. 672) unofficial patron saint of the internet. St. Isidore lived long before even the most basic of electronics, so why pick him for the internet? Easy, he made an encyclopedia of all knowledge known in Europe at that time. And if you remember you internet history (besides how it’s a series of tubes invented by Al Gore) then you know that sharing all the information in the world was one of the internets early goals.
St. Helen (d. 329) patron saint of divorce. St. Helen actually was divorced. Her husband left her after years of marriage to marry a younger woman with better political ties, but it is only in reasont years that she was declared the patron of this as up until the last century divorce was almost unheard of in all Christian societies.
St. Margaret of Cortona (d. 1297) patron saint of single mothers. Much like St. Helen she actually experienced what she has reasontly became the patron of. She became the mistress of a single nobleman in her early teens. They lived together for years having one son. When here lover was murdered she turned her life around and ended up becoming a nun. Unlike in the case of St. Helen single mothers were not uncommon in her lifetime or when she was declared a saint; however, as she was a single mother because she never married her child’s father and not due to a husband dying, many think that she wasn’t made the patron saint of single mothers until now for fear that to do so might condone her early lifestyle.
St. Joseph of Cuperting (d. 1663) patron saint of air travelers. There were no planes during his life, so why is he the patron of flying? Simple, he had the habit of levitating when praying. There are records of 70 times that this happened, including times in which the nearby villagers would watch, and a investigation by the Inquisition in which they could not find anyway that he was faking.