PATRON (LITURGY). - I. NOTION. - P., in the liturgical sense, means a saint who, by ancient tradition or by legitimate election, is venerated with particular cult by the clergy and people of a place, as a special protector and advocate before God (S. Congr. of Rites, Decr. authent. 3048, 3754). Theologically the patronage is founded on the dogma of the Communion of saints and the Pauline doctrine of the Mystical Body (I Cor., 13, 8-13; cf. also 12, 18 and 28-30).
P. is rendered in ancient Christian writers by patronus; but also by other related terms, such as defensor, adessor, advocatus, protector (more rarely), domnus. St. Paulinus of Nola (d. 431) often calls St. Felix dominaedius, a word peculiar to this writer (Epist., 5, 15; 18, 3; 28, 6; 29, 13; 32, 10: PL 61, 153-437), but also dominus (Carm., 1, 10: PL 61, 463: O pater, o domine, indignis licet, annue servit). Once Prudentius uses for St. Vincent martyr the appellation of orator: orator ad thronum Patris (Perist., 5, 548: PL 60, 409). The Greeks, who did not know the juridical relation of patron and client, are even freer and use a vocabulary of their own: παράκλητοι (advocati), δρυφόροι (stipatores), πάρεδροι (assessores), πολιοῦχοι (custodes civitatis), φύλακες (defensores), συνήγοροι (custodes). Cliens, correlative of patron, is little used in Christian writers, who prefer equivalent, more familiar terms, such as alumnus, servus, famulus. Paulinus calls himself alumnus of St. Felix (Carm., 13, 356); alumni are all the devotees of the Saint (v. 95: ipse sinu pleno dignos miretur alumnus). The small town of Abella is remembered as tanti alumna patroni, that is, of St. Felix (Carm., 13, 795: PL 61, 602). For Prudentius (d. after 404) the Romans are alumni of St. Lawrence: tuosque alumnus urbicos... paterno amore nutrias (Peristeph., 2, 269). In the same sense the word returns in the cemetery inscriptions, as at SS. Marcellinus and Peter: Suscipite vestrum alumnum (A. Silvagni, Inscript. christ. Urbis Romae, I, Rome 1922, n. 947). A tombstone of Carpentras for a faithful man, who died on May 21, the vigil of the feast of the martyr Baudilius of Nîmes, says: «Domino dulcem suum commendat alumnum martyr Baudelius per passionis diem» (E. Le Blant, Inscript. christ. de la Gaule, II, Paris 1865, p. 798). St. Theodore Studite prays St. Bartholomew to protect particularly alumnus decoratus Lipareos (PG 99, 802).
II. ORIGIN AND CHRISTIAN MEANING
Although it is not difficult to discern traces of patronage among various ancient peoples, the juridical concept of p. is typically Roman. In Rome p. denoted the head of a family in relation to his clientes and freedmen; the relationship of patronage is contemplated by the law of the Twelve Tables. Later, to the personal meaning was added the collective one: patroni coloniae, provinciae, civitatis (which in the 4th century became defensores), collegii (the corporations). In a transferred sense, said of poets, it was a synonym for "patron of the arts." Roman law did not fail to determine also the duties of the cliens toward the p. in a series of services (operae), fixed gifts (dona) or occasional ones (munera). All data that antiquity transmitted to the Middle Ages, giving them concrete form in customs and formulas.
The Church, inheriting from Roman culture the concept of p., spiritualized its meaning, applying it to the saints, the cives optimo iure of the urbs coelestis. The first hint of p. in a Christian sense is found in the apocryphal Actus Petri cum Simone (ca. 150-70). Of the senator Marcellus, who had become a Christian, the writer says: "Marcellum omnes pauperi (I) patronum vocabant" (Acta apost. apocr., Leipzig 1891, p. 55), where p. still reflects the classical sense, but with a shade of differentiation for the higher Christian motive that inspires it. In the Passio Petri et Pauli (another apocryphon of the second half of the 2nd century), the Apostles are called "patronos magnos... et amicos Domini nostri Iesu Christi" (ibid., p. 173). A passage more sensitive to the Christian transformation. The Apostles are still living, but their action already has something heavenly about it. The process of transformation barely begun in the 2nd century is found in full evolution two centuries later. St. Ambrose (d. 397) serves as a bridge between the classical world and the Christian one. In the treatise De viduis (written in 376), the Saint recommends that widows choose generous p. in the Apostles and martyrs, but that they present themselves to them provided with good works (c. 8, 54: PL 16, 250). During the anti-Arian struggles Ambrose places himself and his Church under the protection of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, whose relics he found almost miraculously, on 17 June 386, in the "Ambrosian" basilica. He writes to his sister Marcellina (Ep., 22, 10-11: PL 16, 1072): "Cognoscant omnes quales propugnatores requiram. Tales ego ambo defensores, tales milites habeo... quorum quo maiora, eo tutiora patrocinia sunt. Horum opto praesidia." And again: "Patronos habebamus et nesciebamus." The same concept is repeated by the Saint four years later in commenting on the Gospel of St. Luke (Expos. in Evang. s. Lucae, c. 10, v. 12: PL 15, 1807): "Mortuis regibus, in perpetuum martyres regnum coelestis gratiae honore succedunt; illi fium supplices, hi patroni." In the Ambrosian sense, p. returns in Prudentius (d. 410). In the hymn to St. Lawrence the sick poet trusts that he will be healed "per patronos martyres." Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius are the special p. of all Spain, while Emeterius and Caledonius attract so many pilgrims to their tomb that the poet calls them outright orbis coloni, patroni mundi (Perist., 1, 10). In the hymn to St. Romanus he puts on the lips of the young man's mother this pathetic invocation: "Vale... dulcisime et cum bestus regna Christi intraveris - memento matris, iam patrone ex filio" (Perist., 10, 831). The mother as cliens of her son would, in Roman law, have been a paradox. A return to the classical meaning seems to be found in St. Augustine. Magnus patronus is for the bishop of Hippo the Redeemer; the believers are his clientes. St. Stephen and all the saints are p. insofar as they defend the souls of the dead before the tribunal of God. To the Prudentian concept, on the other hand, the poems of Paulinus of Nola lead back, in honor of St. Felix, the carus patronus, who defends the small Campanian city ("coelesti firma patrono", Carm., 18, 5). Thanks to Felix, Nola can be said to be second only to Rome, which surpasses all other cities through its apostolic tombs (Carm., 13, 397). In the Acte s. Genesi the pseudo-Paulinus calls the martyr Arelatensis urbis... patronus virtute moriendi (CSEL, 29, p. 425). A hint of the praesidium patronorum of the Theban Legion is found again in Eucherius of Lyon (d. 450-55, CSEL, 31, p. 173). With Paulinus of Périgueux (d. after 470) the term defines its contours even better, being attributed to non-martyr saints. Martin of Tours is the sanctus patronus, always surrounded by innumerable clientes (Vita s. Martini, I: PL 61, 1016). Every kind of needy person commends himself to his patrocinium; one virgin is freed from grave danger, another is healed, but then, abandoned by the Saint (dono tanti spoliata patroni) because she has fallen back into sin, dies miserably (ibid., VI: PL 61, 1067); a young man commends his health to Martin, the entire family of the vice-governor Liconcius begs him to be preserved from the plague (ibid., V: PL 61, 1063). Whoever wishes to have protection need only raise his trusting eyes to the holy p.
No less powerful for Rome is the patronage of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, whom St. Leo I (d. 461) invokes as p. of the City together with St. Lawrence (G. Morin, Notes d'anc. littér. eccl., in Rev. bénéd., 13 [1896], p. 344). Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489) imagines St. Abraham, p. of Clermont, as a king who shares the kingdom with other colleagues. The colleagues are the holy p. of the city: "Abraham sanctis merito sociande patronis - quos tibi collegas dicere non trepidem... Dat partem regni portio martyrii" (Epist., 7, 17: PL 58, 587). This certain humanization of patronage is accentuated in a writing of Apollinaris concerning St. Julian, of whom Mamertus, restoring his head to his native city, Vienne, writes: "Pro compensatione deposcimus, ut nobis inde veniat pars patrocinii, quia vobis hinc redit pars patroni" (Epist., 7, 1: PL 58, 564). The testimonies become rarer after the 6th century. A hint of a peculiaris patronus is found in Caesarius of Arles (d. 543): then in the works of St. Gregory of Tours (d. 593-94) there is a veritable flowering on the efficacy of the patronage of the saints, favored by the spread of relics
(brandea, patrocinia), and by the growing trust in the help of the saints. At the end of the 6th century the practice of choosing oneself a p. must have been common. Venantius Fortunatus (d. early 7th century) attests it for Gaul: "Gallia sic proprios dum fudit ubique patronos - quos hic terra regit, lumina mundus habet" (Carm., 3, 7; MGH, Auct. Antiq., IV, 1, p. 58). From the same time is a text of St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), in which the Saint exhorts the faithful to procure for themselves in the holy martyrs powerful p.: "Adsunt defensores nostri sancti martyres. Hos adiutores vestrae orationis quaerite, hos protectores vestri reatus invenite" (Hom., 33, 8; PL 76, 1238). With the 7th century the Christian concept of p. is definitively fixed, which in three centuries has completed its entire evolutionary parabola. The testimonies cited represent, roughly, the whole Western world. Their authors all came to the Church from the Roman juridical world. This is an assurance that the terminology used has an exact value. Later writers will retrace the already traced pattern, applying the now acquired concept to various cases.
III. OFFICIAL
In Sacred Scripture the duties of patronage are performed by the angels. Two of them, Michael (Dan. 10:13, 20-21; 11:1; 12:1) and Gabriel (Dan. 8:16; 9:21), provide for the interests of the Persians and the Greeks. One angel takes particularly to heart the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the other cities destroyed during the Babylonian exile (Zech. 1:12). Others take part in the conversion of sinners (Luke 15:10), in the growth of the Church (1 Cor. 4:9; Eph. 3:10), protect the poor (Matt. 18:10), the Apostles (Acts 12:15). Every people, every city, community, or Church has its own guardian angel (Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6, 17; Origen, Contra Celsum, 5, 29; Tertullian, De pudicitia, 14). St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael already enjoyed a particular cult in the early Middle Ages. St. Michael was invoked as a guide of souls to heaven (cf. F. Cumont, Les vents et les anges psychopompes, in Pisciculi, Münster in W. 1939, pp. 70, 75; B. Serpilli, L'Offeritorio della Messa dei defunti, Rome 1946, pp. 87-95) and as defender of the Christian people. He is found, in fact, as patron of cities, provinces, and Catholic kingdoms: his banner was carried in the front line in battles and his statue was placed, as a symbol and defense, on fortresses, as on Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome.
But the saints, far more, were invoked as patrons in the necessities of individual and collective life. St. Prodo is the gratuitous defensor of widows and orphans (PG 65, 847): a title which St. Titus also enjoys in Crete. St. Stephen is the afflictorum et peregrinarum defensor (PG 100, 1186). St. Phocas was in the East the patron of fishermen, who during navigation reserved for the Saint, as for one of their own, his portion of flour, which then, once they reached port, they distributed to the poor. His sanctuary, on the island of Sira, was covered with Christian, Jewish and pagan inscriptions, which invoked his protection: « Domine sancte Phoca », says one, « servate navim Mariam, cosque in ea navigantes » (C. Bayet, Revue archéol., 17 [1876], p. 287). A thought that returns in an inscription from the cemetery of Callistus (4th-5th century): Petite spirita sancta ut Verecundus cum suis bene navigat (G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotterr. II, pp. 17-18). St. Nicetius of Lyon was the special friend of prisoners (St. Gregory of Tours, Vitae patrum, 8, 7; PL 71, 1046). Other saints were invoked as protectors in war (a reminiscence of the assistance of heroes?). According to Theodoret (Historia, II, 24), before the battle in which Eugenius was defeated (year 394), the holy apostles John and Philip appeared by night to Theodosius, promising to become his allies. More frequent was the recourse to patrons in illnesses and public calamities. Victricius (d. 400) enumerates a series of cities in which the respective patrons have been attributed functions of heavenly physicians: « Curat (in the "therapeutic" sense) Ephesi Ioannes Evangelista. Curat Bononiae Proculus, Agricola. Curat Placentiae Antoninus. Curat Saturninus, Traianus in Macedonia. Curat Nazarius Mediolan: Mutius Alexander, Datysus, Chindeus larga virtute gratiam salutis infundunt. Curat Rogata, Leonida, Anastasia, Anatocila » (Lib. de laude sanct., 11; PL 20, 453). No less frequent is the invocation of the patronage of the saints for spiritual needs. St. Agnes is celebrated by Prudentius as the special patroness of female chastity (Perist., 14, 124; PL 60, 589). The saints are advocati delictorum nostrorum (PL 20, 443). They second the prayers of their devotees: St. Mamarte is adiutor ad precandum (PG 131, 590), St. Stephen advocatus et patronus obsequendum sibi petitionibus (Avitus of Braga, ca. 415; Epist., ed. Florez, in España sagrada, XV, Madrid 1750, p. 374).
With their prayers the saints recommend our [prayers] trustingly to God (St. Caesarius of Arles, Hom. in deposit. s. Honorati, sermo 214; ed. G. Morin, I, Maredsous 1937). The patronage of the saints is invoked in a particular way against demons. St. Plato is the powerful patron « against visible and invisible enemies » (PG 99, 848). For Victricius the Christian life is a continuous struggle, in which God « non arma, non praesidia denegavit ». And he concludes: « Nemo signa deserat Salvatoris. Dedit exemplum, dedit auxilia, certa victoria est cum talibus commilitonibus et cum Christo imperatore pugnare » (PL 20, 455). And after having defended us against the evils and enemies of this life, the saints will be the boni patroni in the life to come. Ancient Christian literature has lingered over highlighting the intervention of the saints before the divine tribunal: « Patronos facite », exhorts St. Gregory the Romans, « hos in die tanti terroris illius defensores adhibete » (PL 16, 1238). This thought is reflected in the beautiful inscription from the cemetery of Cyriaca: Sancti martyres apud Deum et X (= Christum) erunt advocati (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. archeol. crist., 1864, p. 34). Nor is there lacking in this regard some strong tinge of ingenuous faith, as when Prudentius declares that on the day of Judgment he would love to find himself at the left of the judge so that St. Romanus might come to save him (Perist., 10, 1136; PL 60, 539). Paleochristian art, for its part, abounds in scenes representing the deceased welcomed by saints in Paradise or accompanied and defended in judgment: a transparent allusion to their efficacious patronage. Veneranda, at Domitilla (a painting not much later than 336: Wilpert, Pitture, p. 428), is introduced into paradise by St. Petronilla. A painting of the Cosmet. maius (id., ibid., p. 386) represents the deceased before Christ enthroned, surrounded by six saints, seated, who act as assessores. At Sts. Peter and Marcellinus (id., ibid., p. 428) the deceased is in the attitude of an orant, while the saints help her to pray by supporting her arms (cf. the expression adiutores orationis of St. Gregory, In evang. II, hom. 58, 8). At the cemetery of the Nunziatella, Christ, on a chair, is surrounded by four saints and as many deceased. Two saints speak pleading, as advocates, the cause of their clientes: their defense is valid and the case won, because the deceased are represented as already in possession of beatitude.
Connected with this idea is the custom, much sought after in antiquity, of having oneself buried near the martyrs. The practice is universal: in Rome, Catania, Aquileia, in the Gauls, at Salona, in Africa, in the East. The privilege, « quod multi cupiunt rari accipiunt » (G. B. De Rossi, Inscript., Rome 1857, p. 319) is indicated with the expressions: « ad santum Cornelium », « ad domnum (Gaium) », « ante domna Emerita », « at Criscent (ionem) », « in crypta noba retro sanctus », « intra tua limina martyr » (at St. Paul's), « pro foribus martyrorum » (Catania), and similar. « Sociatus martyribus », a phrase very common in epigraphy, indicates precisely this custom. It is not clear to what thought this irrepressible desire to secure for oneself after death the nearness of the saints responded. St. Ambrose and St. Paulinus link it to the belief that the blood of the martyrs must penetrate into the neighboring tombs, purifying the remains of the deceased; but in most the dominant thought is that of efficaciously feeling the patronage of the saints on the day of Judgment and of participating in the prayers which the devotees make in their honor.
Two necessities of a collective character are found particularly commended to the patronage of the saints: the Church and one's own city (= the homeland). The Church is entrusted especially to the patronage of Sts. Peter and Paul, by whose protection universi muniuntur populi christiani (St. Leo? v. G. Morin, Rev. bénéd., 13 [1896], p. 345). A beautiful prayer of the Leonine Sacramentary says: « Familiam tuam (= the Church), apostolicis defende praesidiis" (PL 55, 54). St. Lawrence too is called the patron of the Roman Church, and St. Sebastian, in the Passio (5th century), is called defensor Ecclesiae (cf. B. Pesci, Il culto di s. Sebastiano a Roma, in Antonianum, 20 [1945], p. 182). All the martyrs are the valiant defense of the Church conceived as a city, which magnis martyrum turribus munitur (PG, 31, 599). More numerous are the invocations of patronage over cities and peoples. With the decline of the Empire and the menacing advance of the barbarian hordes, where was defense and protection to be sought if not in the saints? Titus is the turris propugnaculum of Crete, Amandus is that of Bordeaux, Pantagathus of Vienne. Constantine transferred the bodies of Sts. Andrew and Timothy to Constantinople ut sua apostolicis muniret moenia laetus corporibus. Gregory of Nyssa prays St. Theodore to defend his city from the threat of the neighboring scelesti Scythiae (PG 46, 746). The possession of the relics of the saints, called precisely patrocinia, gave a sense of security. "Tegant arma quos volunt," exclaims Vitricius, "nos vestrae acies, vestra signa custodient" (PL 20, 448). It is the priest Silvius of Ivrea, depositing in the new church the relics of the martyrs, who "praesidio magno patriam populumque munivit sanctis firmans custodibus urbem" (C. Gazzera, Iscriz. crist. ant. del Piemonte, Turin 1849, p. 80). The protection of the saints over the city will never fail. Frutuosus at the end of the world will prevent, says Prudentius, his Tarragona from being consumed even by the fire of the divine Judgment (Perist., 6, 158; PL 61, 424).
This trust in the protection of the saints gave rise to another custom, very widespread in the Middle Ages, of giving the gates of cities the names of saints, as if to place them as their guardians. Generally the saint whose sanctuary was nearest was chosen. Procopius (d. after 562) perhaps reflects this idea when he relates that, after the war against the Goths, the Romans did not wish to repair the crumbling gates of the city, entrusting it to the protection of the Princes of the Apostles (De bello Gothico, I, 23; ed. Nieb, II, 110; cf. H. Grisar, Roma alla fine del mondo antico, II, Rome 1808, p. 101). An echo of it is found also in Venantius Fortunatus (d. 530), when he writes (Carm., III, 7; PL 88, 127): "A facie hostili duo propugnacula praesunt - quos fidei turrea urbs caput orbis habet." In an inscription of King Wamba (672-80) placed above a gate of Toledo, in memory of the fortifications erected around the city, one reads that, despite the colossal works carried out, the defense of the city is entrusted to its holy patrons: "Vos, sancti domini, quorum hic praesentia fulget, hanc urbem et plebem solito servate favore" (J. Vives, Inscriptiones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, Barcelona 1942, p. 125). And finally in an Algerian inscription (CIL, VIII, 5352) of 539 it is stated: "Patricii Salomonis institutionem nemo expugnare valebit," because the entrance is guarded by the martyr Vincent, the exit by Clement. St. Ambrose, however, insists several times on the concept that the efficacy of the patronage of the saints is not clauditur locis, but diffunditur meritis, and extends to all those who invoke them with faith (Sermo, 55, 9; PL 17, 718).
In another area, the concept of patron seems to have influenced the naming of the titular of churches. It is well known that in the signatures of the presbyteri of the Roman Council of 499 the titles are designated by the name of the founder: titulus Pammachi, Iulii, Vestinae, etc.; only a few bear the name of a saint: s. Clementis, s. Matthaei. A century later (595) all the titles have a patron saint, which sometimes corresponds to the name of the founder preceded by the appellation sanctus (titulus sancti Damasi replaces titulus Damasi, titulus sancti Eusebii replaces titulus Eusebii, titulus Caeciliae first and titulus sanctae Caeciliae afterwards, titulus Sabinae and titulus sanctae Sabinae [cf. H. Delehaye, Sanctus, Brussels 1927, pp. 149-50; id., Les origines du culte des martyrs, ibid. 1933, pp. 296-98]); at other times the patron is different from the conditor tituli: thus the titulus Lucinae became the title of St. Lawrence, St. Vitalis is the ancient titulus Vestinae, Sts. John and Paul replace the titulus Pammachi. The founders became the patrons of their churches.
Another custom, which gradually became generalized to the point of becoming a law, today codified in the liturgical books (cf. Rituale Romanum, tit. II, c. II, n. 30), is the adoption of the name of a saint in Baptism, so that the saint may be a valiant protector of life. This practice is closely connected with the custom that the cliens took the name of his patronus. The oldest testimony is that of Dionysius of Alexandria (d. 265), who notes that the names of Peter and Paul were very frequent among the faithful of his time, and that anciently the same must have been true of the name of John, in emulation of his virtues (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 7, 25, 14). St. John Chrysostom too invites his faithful to prefer the names of saints, which have great power with God. "Children are given the name of the martyrs," says Theodoret, "to assure them protection and custody" (Graecorum aff. curatio, 8, 67; cf. C. A. Kellner, Was die ältesten christlichen Eigennamen erzählen, in Stimmen aus Maria Laach, 62/63 [1902], pp. 171-82).
IV. CHOICE OF PATRON
The choice of a patron came about through various circumstances. The birth, the apostolate, the martyrdom of a saint in a place, or an extraordinary prodigy performed there, or the possession of a distinguished relic, determined the choice of patron. Often the patron is the first bishop of the city, as the founder of the Church in that place. Urban VIII on 23 March (S. Congr. of Rites, Decreta auth., 526; cf. also 555) established: 1) that the saint to be chosen as patron be canonized; 2) that the election be made by the people with the consent of the bishop and the clergy; 3) that such election be approved by the S. Congr. of Rites. Today's legislation (can. 1278, cf. also can. 1247 § 2) substantially reflects these norms.
In the election, clergy and people, civil and religious authorities had to take part. A great part was given to the civil element, because at that time the people took a great part in ecclesiastical affairs, and then because the adoption of a patron entailed a feast de praecepto (holiday), a commitment that had to be undertaken by common agreement. With the times changed and the holiday abolished, the participation of the people is much reduced, although in theory it still exists. On the contrary, popular participation is not required for the election of moral patrons, which moreover are of recent date, declared directly by the pope, either on the initiative of some bishop, or to satisfy the aspirations and needs of the times. Today there is no religious corporation, diocese, or nation that does not have its patrons. The number of moral patrons has grown by far in recent times. Here are those of the universal Church: St. Aloysius Gonzaga, patron of studious youth (1729, Benedict XIII; and 1926, Pius XI); St. Joseph, of the universal Church (8 Dec. 1870); St. Thomas Aquinas, of universities, colleges and Catholic schools (4 Aug. 1880); St. Vincent de Paul, of all charitable associations (12 May 1885); St. Camillus de Lellis and St. John of God, of hospitals and the sick (22 June 1886) and of nurses (1930, Pius XI); St. Peter Claver, of the missions among the negroes (1896, Leo XIII); St. Paschal Baylon, of eucharistic congresses and of the confraternities of the Most Holy Sacrament (28 Nov. 1897); St. Francis Xavier, of the work of the Propagation of the Faith (25 March 1904); St. John Chrysostom, of the Sacred Oratories (8 July 1908); St. Ignatius of Loyola, of spiritual exercises (25 July 1922); St. Leonard of Port Maurice, of popular missions among Catholics (17 March 1923); St. Francis de Sales, of Catholic writers and journalists (26 Apr. 1923); St. Bernard of Menthon, of mountaineers and of the inhabitants and travelers of the Alps (20 Aug. 1923); St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the missions in infidel countries (14 Dec. 1927); St. John M. Vianney, of parish priests (23 Apr. 1929); St. Michael the Archangel, of radiologists and radiotherapists (15 Jan. 1941); St. Albert the Great, of students of the natural sciences (16 Dec. 1941); St. Joseph Calasanz, of popular schools (13 Aug. 1948); St. Alphonsus M. de' Liguori, of confessors and moralists (26 Apr. 1950); St. John Baptist de La Salle, of Catholic teachers (15 May 1950); St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, of emigrants (8 Sept. 1950). And here are some of the most recent patrons for Italy: St. Matthew, patron of the finance guard (10 Apr. 1935); St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena, primary patrons (18 June 1939); St. Francis of Paola, of seafarers and shipping companies (17 March 1943); St. Catherine of Siena, of nurses, and St. Catherine of Genoa, of hospitals (15 Sept. 1943); St. John Bosco, of Italian publishers
(25 May 1946); Madonna of Castellazzo, of motorcyclists (11 Feb. 1947); Madonna of Montenero, of all Tuscany (5 May 1947); St. Michael the Archangel, of the public security guards (29 Apr. 1949); B. Virgin of Ghisallo, of cyclists (13 Oct. 1949); B. Virgin Mary "Virgo fidela", of the carabinieri (11 Nov. 1949); St. Martin of Tours, patron of the Infantry (21 May 1951).
In the Middle Ages various classes and professions had their patron, which however varied from place to place. Here is a list of those more universally accepted: farmers, St. Isidore the Farmer; silversmiths, St. Andronicus; lawyers, St. Ivo; motorists, St. Christopher; gravediggers, St. Tobias and St. Joseph of Arimathea; hunters, St. Hubert; shoemakers, Sts. Crispin and Crispinian; charcoal burners, St. Alexander; jailers, St. Hippolytus, Sts. Processus and Martinian; actors, St. Genesius and St. Vitus; maidservants, St. Zita; tax collectors, bankers, money changers, St. Matthew; carpenters, St. Joseph; foresters, St. John Gualbert; philosophers, St. Justin, St. Catherine of Alexandria; gardeners, St. Fiacre; jurists, St. Raymond of Peñafort; nurses, St. John of God and St. Camillus de Lellis; bookbinders, St. Peter Celestine and St. John of God; midwives, St. Raymond Nonnatus; mothers of families, St. Anne, b. Anna M. Taigi; teachers, St. Cassian, St. John Baptist de La Salle; seafarers and navigators, St. Nicholas of Bari, St. Francis of Paola; physicians, St. Luke, Sts. Cosmas and Damian; miners, St. Barbara; musicians, St. Gregory the Great and St. Cecilia; goldsmiths and jewelers, St. Eligius; fishermen, St. Peter and St. Andrew; painters, St. Luke; tailors, St. Homobonus; pavers, St. Stephen; telecommunications workers, St. Gabriel the Archangel; weavers, St. Onuphrius; widows, St. Frances of Rome.
Other saints are commonly invoked as protectors in various needs: on sea voyages, St. Francis Xavier; in desperate cases, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus; for finding lost things, St. Anthony of Padua; for making a good death, St. Joseph; for having offspring, St. Francis of Paola and St. Rita; against thieves, thefts, etc., St. Dismas the good thief; against lightning and thunderbolts, St. Barbara; in impossible cases, St. Rita; for finding a husband, St. Paschal Baylon.
Certain saints finally are invoked in particular illnesses or calamities: to be healed from apoplexies, St. Andrew Avellino; from infestations of the devil, St. Ubald; from scruples, St. Ignatius of Loyola; from calumnies, St. Onuphrius; from the plague, St. Roch; from earthquakes, St. Emygdius; from hernia, St. Cataldus; from sores of the legs, St. Peregrine; from eye disease, St. Lucy; from toothache, St. Apollonia; from sore throat, St. Blaise; from headache, St. Peter Martyr; from hoarseness, St. Bernardine of Siena; against dog bites, St. Hubert; from gossip and evil tongues, St. John Nepomucene; against falls, St. Venantius.
V. LITURGY
Two classes of patrons are distinguished: local and (so to speak) moral. The former (patroni loci) are patrons of a particular country, city, province, region, nation or several nations and, according to ecclesiastical terminology, of a parish, diocese, conciliar province, or of the whole Church. The others are patrons of certain classes of persons, of religious, social, charitable works or initiatives, associations and moral bodies. Not infrequently there are several patrons, of whom one is principal and the others aeque principales or secondary.
Local patrons differ from moral ones in the manner of election and in their privileges. The principal or aeque principal local patron has the right to a rite of the 1st class (to which all the clergy of the place are bound, including religious), with a common octave; he has a privileged votive Mass when his feast, having been impeded, is transferred to another day, he has the right to the Creed and to other particulars enumerated by liturgists (cf., e.g., C. Callewaert, Institutiones liturgicae, II, De Officio divino, Bruges 1931, pp. 267-69). Secondary local patrons are venerated with a double major rite. Moral patrons, on the other hand, have no liturgical privilege. The pontifical documents that speak expressly of the former make no mention of them for the latter. At one time these privileges differed from one patron to another. With the reform of Pius X all patrons enjoy equal privileges.
From patrons are distinguished Titulars (v.).