patron saint

American  

noun

patron saints plural

1. a saint regarded as the special guardian of a person, group, trade, country, etc.

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patron saint British  

noun

1. a saint regarded as the particular guardian of a country, church, trade, person, etc

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patron saint Cultural  

1. A saint from whom a person or group claims special protection or prayers. Saint Christopher, for example, is considered the patron of travelers; Saint Luke, the patron of doctors; and Saint Patrick, the patron of Ireland. People who have the same name as a saint may consider the saint their patron. The honoring of patron saints is especially common in the Roman Catholic Church.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• patron saints
  plural

Etymology

Origin of patron saint

First recorded in 1710–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

patron saint

Who is the patron saint of lost causes?

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

With their help, the conference can put its money where its mouth is, as the patron saint of world-changing upstarts.

From Slate ● May 8, 2026

An agitated Jean finds herself praying to none other than Monica Lewinsky, the patron saint of bad romantic choices, or as Langbein puts it, “of those who suffer venal public shaming and patriarchal cruelty.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

Just as Pilates has a patron saint in Joseph Pilates, the field of somatics has the late Thomas Hanna, a philosopher and student of neurology who coined the term in 1976.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026

Indeed, it is the same figure provided by Las Casas, patron saint of High Counters, foremost among the old Spanish sources whose estimates Henige spends many pages discounting.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• guardian angel