April 4 -- Feast of Saint Isidore of Seville

Isidore (right) and his pal Saint Braulio

Severianus and Theodora must have been pretty good parents.  Four of their children -- Florentina, Fulgentius, Leander, and Isidore -- were all saints.  Leander, archbishop of Seville, helped to raise Isidore after his death, employing him in the effort to convert the Visigothic rulers of Spain from Arianism to orthodox Christianity.  After Leander's death, Isidore became the archbishop of Seville and was such a learned, energetic, and able leader that he was later called Doctor of the Church.

Is this a little boring?  Tempted to go troll some dope in a chat room?  Post embarrassing photos of your co-workers, or maybe just bully some folks on facebook?  Before you do, consider this prayer, recommended by Catholic.org for internet use.


Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thy image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter.
Through Christ our Lord.  Amen 

Yes, the interwebs have their own patron saint (almost).  His Holiness Pope John Paul II proposed the designation after an on-line plebiscite narrowed the choices to Isidore.  I'm not sure how patrons get ratified, or why His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI hasn't pushed the final ratification, but the assignment makes good sense to me.  Isidore was the author of an encyclopedia, Etymologies, which was intended to be collect and make accessible all the earthly knowledge that existed in the seventh century.  It was, obviously, not as democratic as wikipedia, but it had the same general mission: make all knowledge available to everyone.  

Saint Braulio, a friend and pupil who assisted Isidore in the Etymologies as well as the efforts to convert the Visigoths (and other stuff), was also nominated for interwebs patron.   Since Isidore got the nod from JP2, I have proposed that Braulio become the patron saint of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and (obviously) Blogger.