Comments on: Vatican might name Saint Isidore of Seville the patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers.

Vatican might name Saint Isidore of Seville the patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers.

christian — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 09:25:21 -0800

Vatican might name Saint Isidore of Seville the patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers. The world keeps getting weirder, doesn't it?

By: tallman

tallman — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 09:46:22 -0800

That's not that wierd. Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of haemorrhoids, sterility, syphilis, and venereal disease (among other things). Now that is wierd!

By: cCranium

cCranium — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:00:42 -0800

tallman, technially speaking he's one of the patrons against the various inflictions you've mentioned, not of, though the page doesn't indicate that unless you let the title/alt (unsure which they used) appear. Still amusing though. :-)

By: leo

leo — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:32:05 -0800

All I can say is it's about time we got a patron saint. I finally have something to put around my neck chain.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:36:48 -0800

So syphilis gets two patron saints, but venereal diseases in general only get one, and they have to share him with box makers, cab drivers and infertility. Man, Chlamydia gets no respect!

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:48:49 -0800

So there are magical people living beyond human comprehension who are concerned with Syphilis and cable modems? And people believe this?

By: annathea

annathea — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:51:57 -0800

Well, naturally. There are little men in the television set who make the pictures move, and little men in automobiles who make the wheels move, so it seems like a logical next step that the little men would be concerned with high-bandwidth needs in urban areas as well as STDs.

By: leo

leo — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:55:06 -0800

Jeepers, Doug, apply a little of that credo ut intelligam to the situation.

By: bradlands

bradlands — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 11:34:24 -0800

Thanks but no thanks, popie. I'll stick with Saint Dogbert or Swami Abdul for my spiritual protection on the Internet.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 11:40:03 -0800

I thought Courtney Love was the patron saint of syphilis?

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 11:43:16 -0800

I hope you're right, Bondcliff, otherwise I've wasted hours of prayer. And of course, the itching may never stop.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 11:46:44 -0800

Leo, I don't believe I get what you're talking about.

By: leo

leo — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 12:34:08 -0800

Well, that's just it, doug. You have to believe in order to understand. It's a Saint Augustine kind of thing. Brad, here for example, feels that either Saint Dogbert or Swami Abdul will best look out for his interests on the internet. It's not rational, it can't be proved, and in fact, it sounds pretty absurd. Nevertheless, incredible as it may seem, by believing in it, we put ourselves in a better postion to understand it. (Of course the truth is Swami Abdul would do a far better job than Dogbert but it's not something I can prove).

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:07:25 -0800

by believing in it, we put ourselves in a better postion to understand it I think that would be better phrased as "by believing in it, we put ourselves in a better position to delude ourselves into thinking we understand it."

By: rodii

rodii — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:11:33 -0800

I thought Isidore was already the patron saint of librarians. Isn't he getting a little uppity?

By: leo

leo — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:29:11 -0800

Doing a quick google search turns up a couple of mentions of St. Jerome and one of Andrew Carnegie. On the other hand, anyone who's ever been to Library School will tell you Ranganathan

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:29:17 -0800

Leo, I realized what it meant, I was being cheeky. I would like to understand racism, and nazism, but I don't want to believe them. It also works from the presumption that christianity is accurate and real. When, really, it's the same as believing in Goblins.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:36:26 -0800

Not really, Doug. Goblins don't have an ancient, mis-translated, interpret-it-however-you-please, book of fiction "proving" that they exist. Unless you consider Tolkin to be scripture. I don't, but many net-geeks seem to.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:59:06 -0800

symbols are for the symbol-minded. flame on!

By: leo

leo — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 15:36:47 -0800

There's nothing wrong with people believing in Goblins. Why, some of my best friends believe in Goblins. Personally I don't, but that doesn't stop me from going along -- particularly if the pagentry and music is up to snuff.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 21:12:42 -0800

There's already an Isidore page at catholic.org. (This has actually been in the works for two years: the Church is, if anything, patient.) Note the prayer to be said upon logging onto the net ... in English and Latin ... and a long history of Isidore from the Catholic Encyclopedia, in case you're curious. (He was a tremendously productive Renaissance man, responsible for the first true encyclopedia -- which is kinda why he was chosen.)

By: sylloge

sylloge — Tue, 06 Feb 2001 22:53:27 -0800

Not really, Doug. Goblins don't have an ancient, mis-translated, interpret-it-however-you-please, book of fiction "proving" that they exist. Pow! Is this the zinger room?

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Wed, 07 Feb 2001 05:59:49 -0800

I'm sorry, this is abuse. Zingers are down the hall. First left after the Argument room.

By: tallman

tallman — Wed, 07 Feb 2001 06:10:39 -0800

:: symbols are for the symbol-minded. And we are all symbol-minded, what's the big deal?

By: daveadams

daveadams — Wed, 07 Feb 2001 09:45:59 -0800

So my question is: where can I buy a mini-statue of Saint Isidore of Seville to place in my office?