`Tend to Be Prolific and Address a Host of Topics'

I’m relieved to learn that even bloggers, like lumberjacks, the physically unattractive and those suffering from bowel disorders, have a patron saint of their own.  According to Thomas J. Craughwell, author of This Saint Will Change Your Life (Quirk Books, 2007), he is St. Augustine of Hippo, whose feast day is observed Aug. 28. In his capsule biography of Augustine, Craughwell emphasizes the saint’s vocation as a writer, and notes: 

“We have 270 of his letters (there were probably many more that have been lost over time) and 363 of his sermons. In the first few years of the twenty-first century, bloggers, who tend to be prolific and address a host of topics, chose St. Augustine as their patron.” 

I’m not certain if assigning saints to various people, places and causes is a democratic process, though historically the practice has been embraced by the faithful. There’s a folk element in the adoption of patron saints, and bloggers are fortunate to claim Augustine as our own. By 1923, Pope Pius XI had already proclaimed St. François de Sales the patron of writers and journalists, but we need all the help we can get. At least one other writer has nominated an alternate patron saint of bloggers, one closer to our day and possessing that supreme saintly virtue, good humor. I mean, of course, G.K. Chesterton. Francis Phillips writes: “Let’s pray for his canonisation – as the future saint of the blogosphere.”