Friday

It seems like the Catholic Church has a lot of patron saints of alcohol. Here's a partial list I assembled from random Internet surfing: St. Augustine (brewers), St. Arnold of Soissons (hop-pickers and Belgian brewers), St. Dorothea of Caesarea (brewers), St. Amand (brewers, bartenders, vine growers, and vintners), St. Theobald of Provins (winegrowers), St. Vincent of Saragossa (winemakers), St. Adrian (beer), St. Martin (wine), St. Vincent (vintners), St. Luke (brewers), St. Nicholas (brewers), St. Urban (wine), St. Bibiana (hangovers).

Plus (unsurprisingly, apparently) a few patron saints of alcoholics.

So which patron saint is king of the alcohol patron saints? I think I vote for St. Arnold. Not only is he a patron saint in the RCC, but a Russian Orthodox artist has created an icon of him (pictured above) and Texas's supposedly oldest craft brewery is named after him. Sure, those are lame reasons to nominate him king of the patron saints of alcohol, but that icon is pretty cool. If anyone has tasted St. Arnold Brewery's beer, I'd be curious to know if it's any good.