Patron Saints

[PoliSciProf]

How do patron saints get selected or designated? Is there some sort of liturgical process or is it by popular practice or tradition or some other mechanism? I ask because there are patron saints for accountants (St. Matthew), anesthetists (St. Rene Goupil), bee keepers (St. Ambrose), comedians (St. Vitus), Funeral Directors (St. Joan of Arc), horses (St. Martin deTours), perfumers (St. Mary Magdeline), teenagers (St. Gonzaga), Television (St. Clare) and so on as any quick Google search will reveal. Yet there are no patrons of jazz musicians (No, don’t say there are patrons of music like St. Cecilia or Gregory the Great–they couldn’t swing an eighth note), none for guitarists or saxophonists yet there patrons of oil refiners (St. Honorius), salesmen (St. Lucy), trussmakers (St. Follian), vinegar makers (St. Vincent of Saragossa) and so on. How do jazz musicians get one? Fiddlers have St. Julian the Hospitaller. Why not one for guitarists? For piano tuners? For sushi chefs? For roofers? How do those of us who want one of our own get one?

 

[Jsmith17]

I heard the answer to this on Catholic Answers Live the other day. In most cases, patron saints are chosen by public practice; in a few cases, the Pope has declared a certain saint the patron of a certain field. If you “want one of your own”, you simply choose one with which you feel a connection for whatever reason.