Since there is a great deal that’s fishy going on inside and coming out of the Vatican, thus making it a kind of fish hatchery, I thought this question was appropriate.
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
My dad is the manager at a fish hatchery in the Western US, and I was just wondering who the patron saint of aquaculture workers would be? (I was thinking of getting him a holy card or something like that).
I figured perhaps St. Anthony, who preached to fish. But, I consulted someone whom I thought might know this off the top of his head.
GUEST PRIEST RESPONSE: Fr. Tim Ferguson
St. Neot of Cornwall! He was only four feet tall and his monastery sat by a river and he was told by an angel that if he never ate more than one fish a day, the river would never lack for fish.
My first thought was St. Murgen, the mermaid, but she’s probably better invoked as the patroness of bait…
And there, friends, you have it.
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“St. Neot of Cornwall! He was only four feet tall and his monastery sat by a river and he was told by an angel that if he never ate more than one fish a day, the river would never lack for fish.”
WOW! The first ecologist who was a saint! The angel needs some credit too for telling him not to over-fish!
Also, Saint Zeno of Verona! In the tiny church of San Zeno in Oratorio near the Adige river/Castelvecchio, Verona, is a large stone which is reputed to be the stone on which Saint Zeno used to stand and fish from.
A holy card:
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-zeno-of-verona/
Well Father’s response probably beats all, but one could consider St. Raphael, who saved Tobias from a monstrous fish that was about to devour the young master. Tobit, ch 6!
I am not sure about patron saints, but if anyone is interested in the history of fish stocking for sport, there’s an absolutely fascinating account in the first half of a book called “An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World” by Anders Halverson.
I would have said to look up “vivarium” (fishpond), but apparently this is the trendy new word for any replica environment for any critter.
It seems to be by analogy from “terrarium.” So it is not linguistically wrong, just inconvenient.