Fr. Z’s Prayer Before Using The Internet

Some years ago there was much chat about having St. Isidore of Seville (+636) proposed as the patron saint of the internet.  I was asked to write a prayer people could recite before using the internet.  It seemed to me that that was a good idea.  I wrote the prayer in Latin and submitted it, with a translation into English, to a bishop who gave it his approval.  GO TO THE PAGE

You will want to know why people proposed St. Isidore for this role.  I think it was probably because his most notable work, the Etymologiae, a massive encyclopedic work of 448 chapters in 20 volumes indexing just about everything people thought it was important to know at the time, was rather like a primitive database.    You can pray to any saint in this matter, of course, and nothing official about a patron for the internet has been handed down from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which is the competent dicastery of the Holy See in all issues having to do with patron saints.  People wanted a prayer for St. Isidore, and I wrote one, but you should feel free to change the name to whatever saint you prefer.  Others have proposed St. Maximilian Kolbe (+1941), St. Bernadine of Siena (+1444), St. Rita of Cascia (+1457), and the Archangel Gabriel (still around).

Please know that I am quite happy for people to use this prayer.  I kindly ask that you give attribution.   Also, if you would like to offer a translation into a language missing from those below, please send it.  I can’t find the Spanish version, for example, though there was more than one (one in Spanish Spanish and in Argentinian Spanish).

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