On Sunday, I finished up a 3-week run as a substitute religious education teacher in a 3^rd grade class. As one of the students left on Sunday, he told his mother I was a lot of fun. While I was glad to hear he had a good time, I also got a knot in my stomach as I thought back as to what I had said or done, hoping it was not inappropriate. But, this time, I was in the clear. We’d had some fun on Sunday learning about saints with the same name as the kids and about the various patron saints.

There are patron saints for everything – saints who’ve been chosen as a protecting or guiding saint of a person or place. Catholics and a few other religions believe in the intercession of Saints. We can pray to Saints to lobby God directly, or to intercede on His behalf. Any good Catholic knows St. Anthony the patron saint of lost and stolen articles, St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and St. Patrick the patron saint of Ireland but there are others, less known but just as important. Saint Fiacre, an Irishman who grew up in France, is the patron saint of taxi drivers, gardeners, STDs. That’s a pretty diverse and interesting list. There’s Saint Genesius the patron saint of plumbers, actors, clowns, torture victims. Another odd list and heavy load.

My grandmother carried a St. Christopher medal in her wallet and she swore because of it, she always had the money she needed. He’s actually the patron saint of travelers and children. Not sure how he got roped into helping her with money. My grandmother was a huge fan of calling on the saints. On time she enrolled me in the society of St. Jude’s. I received a year’s worth of novenas said on my behalf. On one hand this was nice but when you know that St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases, it ain’t so grand.

Following Sunday’s lesson, I wondered if there was a patron saint of politicians because we need all the intervention we can summon. As it turns out, there is. Only given the role in 2000, St. Thomas More is the patron saint of both politicians and statesmen. His headless body is buried at the Tower of London. Had I been known how crazy this election was going to get, I would have sought his burial spot out while we were there this summer and have gotten an early start on the request for intercession.

My sister is visiting tomorrow night and it occurred to me that she’s going to probably ruin my perfect record of not watching any of the presidential debates. She’ll want to watch them. She’s like that – prefers to watch them herself instead of just reading the highlights on Twitter or Facebook. Go figure. Anyhow, I hope St. Thomas More is ready. Now that I’m spreading the word, I hope he’s ready for the pleas. After this election cycle, St. Thomas More might be asking to be reassigned.