… until you start digging around.
A priest friend showed me this treasure:
Discuss.
UPDATE:
But wait!
There’s more!
UPDATE:
Yes, it is supposed to be St. Isidore of Seville as “patron of the internet”.
A couple problems manifest themselves immediately.
First, there is no indication that the saint is a bishop.
Second, there is no official Patron of the Internet… yet.
Please tell me that it’s not a statue of Our Lady with a beard…
;-)
(Picture quality not that great on my mobile phone)
It’s still better than the statue of Pope John Paul II…
Moses brings Acer notebooks to the Isrealites.
I read about this person in the Book of Steven Jobs.
It’s obviously Saint Isidore, patron of the Internet.
It is a statue of God with his finger poised over the “SMITE” button of his computer.
Moses bringing one of the tablets down the mountain?
Burke, you should get the Gold Star.
Alex said what I thought. However, it could be one which glows in the dark or is a night-light? I had a Mary statue in the fifties which did that.
Does it glow in the dark? If so will you take a picture of it glowing?
The beard looks like St. Jerome, and there’s no mitre like St. Isidore should have. If you put a little lion next to him, everybody would know for sure that it was St. Jerome!
Alternately, I suppose it could be St. Paul. But really, the beard looks like Jerome.
Your priest friend found a really good bottle of Scotch in the closet and served it on the rocks.
…It _better_ glow or light up in some way, or the most surreal thing about this discussion for me will have been discovering that Supertradmum, of all people, also thought of that possibility, of all things, and posted in between my logging in to comment and my posting my comment. It’s like Spiderman — or better yet, one of Spiderman’s classmates — and Thor running into each other by chance at the cotton candy stand, or something.
Verily the… thing… doth glow! (Everything happens while I’m typing now. Maybe if I keep typing somebody will discover something interesting in the science lab at some university? Then again, that would pretty much be simple statistics.)
Given the green glow, it’s got to be St. Patrick.
Moses glows in the dark as he brings Acer notebooks to the Isrealites
When TEOTWAWKI happens, a chem-lite saint will guide you to the safe zone.
Moses glows as with laptop he poses
I think that holiday cheer in the picture got your readers, well, in the holiday spirit, Fr. Z. Surely it wasn’t the image of the bearded man with the computer.
It’s Our Lord showing us that
It’s NOT computers
But HE who is the light of the world.
For Wisdom don’t go to google
He’s pointing to go to Him.
Probably plastic impregnated with copper-doped zinc sulfide. But don’t sleep with it under your pillow just in case. ;)
Jesus saves.
I’d hoped it would glow in the dark, and yes, you can still buy glow-in-the-dark Mary statues, as well as Jesus. Our daughter has one on her bookshelf.
Maybe it is St. Matthew… with a calculator….
The “iBook of Life,” perhaps?
I think it looks like a texting cell phone. Message is: Jesus is calling.
St. Isidore’s the Bloggers Blend Whisky (on the rocks):
http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/st-isidore-the-bloggers-blend-whisky/
Mozez compozez and textez and glowzez……?
I must have this!
I didn’t think Jesus sports statues could be outdone. Wow.
I’m unsure what this statue depicts exactly, but I am laughing at the funny comments here!
An Orthodox monk with a laptop? I’m completely at a loss here.
Yea, at least it glows. That makes it all better.
Seriously though, glow in the dark statues can be awesome. When I was tiny, I treasured a statue of Our Lady of Grace given to me, unimportant me, by a priest-friend of the family. It was creamy colored and scratchy, seemed to be made of some quartzy-like stuff. It glowed in the dark. I loved it. It was my dearest possession, as I was barely out of the crib – we didn’t have much anyway. My stupid brother took her head off with a football or something and off she went LOL. I can still see that statue of the Blessed Mother, beaming down at me, arms wide as if to embrace me, in the night atop the chest of drawers.
Oh my, this reminds me of the time that a crazy man knocked on the rectory door with a statue that he had made out of green clay and asked the priest to bless it. The priest had to decline because he had no clue what the statue was or for what purpose it would be used.
how did you get a glow-in-the dark statue of my Dad trying to work the internet?
agree with Hale et al., much more interested in the backgroud
a bit dark for single malt?
Does the top come off so you can pour the Absinthe out?
Hmm…how did I miss this in the Leaflet Missal catalog?
Dr. Peters may have canon law covered but I think I found my niche. Finally I am able to contribute a bit of wisdom to Fr. Z’s learned and experienced readers. FYI — glow-in-the-dark holy reminders do NOT glow more brightly or for longer if you set them right next to a 75 watt bulb for….a while. Oh, it will still glow it will just be kind of distorted as in melted. I learned this at about the age of 6 when I wanted my glow-in-the-dark “Jesus welcomes the children” to REALLY glow. Jesus ended up bent over the chldren with his head nearly touching the base he was on. I should have learned from my Dad who discovered that your grandmother WILL notice when you try to “martyr” her dashboard St. Christopher with the car’s cigarette lighter. I certainly hope the owner of this glowing cyber-saint will heed this advice. It would be a shame to see that treasure ruined!
No, no, no. You’re all wrong. Advent is almost here. That’s what gives the statue’s identity away. This is what St. Nicholas looks like after spending Black Friday at Wal-Mart. That explains the whiskey too!
Adam clings to the “Apple” just after the fall.
My immediate impression was that it was Gandalf, holding an extremely rare red painted HP hand-held computer from the early 1980s.
Before I started coming back to Mass regularly, I bought what I thought was a kitschy glow-in-the-dark Our Lady of Fatima statue for an atheist friend as a souvenir of a trip. I was on a (secular) visit to Portugal and we stayed overnight at Fatima. My roommate on the trip convinced me to go to Mass at the basilica.
Something changed.
When I returned home, I did not give my atheist friend the statue and I came back to the church. Our Blessed Mother glows nightly from a perch beside my bed.
According to St. Joseph’s calculations, your house will not sell even if you bury him in the yard; your asking price is too high.
I would never have guessed that it would glow in the dark when I first saw it, although I did wonder about all the white plastic. But then I grew up as a protestant kid. Protestants have pictures and placques they put on the wall instead, especially depictions of Jesus as the Good Shepherd or Jesus in Gethsemane. Particularly on the living room wall and over beds in the bedroom. And there’s often the ever-present old profile painting, which it surprised me to see as a Legionnaires symbol some years back. Even after all these years, I still have one of those hanging on my living room wall, but I’m not associated with the Legionnaires in any way, shape or fashion. And I’m Catholic now.
The only existing cultural artifact for those who have a special devotion to the book of Numbers……
ROFLM (halo) O!!! Oh group. You have outdone yourselves!! “Smite button” indeed!
Several years before his canonization, I had a conversation with a non-Catholic friend about (then) Blessed Damien of Molokai. On my next birthday she gave me a glow in the dark plastic statue of him. Where it came from, I have no idea, but it is on my bookshelf right now!
Gulielmus,
Isn’t that funny how non-Catholics give Catholics things? I have a statue of St. Therese that came out of a dumpster behind a church in Chicago during one of those grisly remodeling jobs. It’s not a huge statue but it’s not a paperweight either. It’s a couple of feet tall and it’s not in great condition but it’s certainly recognizable. It was given to me by a non-Catholic who got it from a non-Catholic…… When I recognized it and was able to tell them who it was, bingo, they gave it to me. It’s here in the house now too.
PLEASE, I’m a dairy farmer, I refer to him as Issy, have a St Isador medal on my pickup headliner, rub it and pray for his help quite often, sometimes I feel a certain kind of peace when I’m done, PLEASE don’t tell me I have to share him with computer geeks too
Egyptian: Don’t confuse St. Isidore of Seville, Bishop and Doctor, with St. Isidore the Farmer.
I can see how St. Isadore could be the patron of Wikipedia, since he wrote one of the first encyclopedias, but the Internet? The Internet is nothing more than transmissions of 1 and 0 in a bit stream. If any Saint was fond of telegraphy, he or she should be the Patron saint of the Internet. Maybe Fr. Maximillian Kolbe?
Isidore and St. Maximilian Kolbe. Spelling…what a concept! I’ve been hiding out over the Holiday weekend trying to avoid nearsighted hunters who might mistake a chicken for a turkey.
The Chicken
Fr , Egyptian :
They’re the same name in English? in presentday Spanish, there’s an “O” between them.( As well as a good half of the iberian peninsula and a milenium, tho I dexpect the latter was christened for the former)
Coz San Isidoro of Seville , whom ‘s the statue, wot I’d never ve guessed,not never, got the extra “O”, n San Isidro , farmer, patron saint of Madrid, interalia, dont got it.
I am resonating – in a few jiffs we’ll be at mass in a church with painted on the pillars of the dome above the altar are all 4 of the canonized siblings , Children of new quart hadast from whence I comment,Isidoro, his sister Florentina , brozo and Bishop Leandro, And another ditto on both counts, Fulgencio.
Don’t look like no glowing statue, tho he was erudite all right.
Miust go.
Actually, when the Persecution begins, you will want such a statue for a very important reason: it acts as a scintillation detector and the stature phosphoresces in the presence of x-rays or other radioactive material. Thus, after the nuclear Holocaust, you can sneak these detectors into your bug-out bag and no one will be the wiser.
The Chicken
@The Egyptian: Please do share your Saints with us computer geeks! We pretty much fall into two categories: those of us who’ve forgotten that man was made from earth and need to be reminded, and those of us who remember and wouldn’t mind working alongside farmers as long as that means we get fed good home food, though we’ll probably try to find a way to automate the calculation of farm plots and such half because we want to be helpful (although we’re not always good at telling what’s helpful, it must be admitted, we mean the best) and half because we think solving such problems so you can see the formulae play out before your eyes is a form of art (I know it sounds strange, but that’s what some of us geeks think/feel).
Also, @all, I say do the Catholic thing and let St. Isidore and St. Max both be patrons of the ‘net.
It’s obviously St Kindle.
asperges: Very witty!
I have a glow-in-the-dark St. Clare next to my TV.
I think it’s Blessed Dimitri of Chernobyl!
Dear Cobbler
Fr already posted on his own combox, 2 count em 2 different Spanish saints. Cool, ¿huh?
In common:
a)Spaniards, ie Spanish from Spain Europe
b) had canonized sanctity running in the family. Even cooler !!!
St I of Seville, with Two canonized brothers brother bishops, and a canonized sister, whereas in St I , farm labouurer, it wasn’t his own land he farmed, patron of Madrid ‘s case it is also his wife , Santa Maria de la Cabeza, and son,San? Illan Held by madrileños to be a saint, later rebuilt hermitage of whom has Goya frescos.They were Mozarabic rite, hence a few mozarabic rites- not mass- remained extant in Madrid on his account, holding out against ecclesiastical tidiersup.Note : he got buckshee miraculous help farming on account of the time he took praying, particularly popping in andout of handy consecrated premises, which isn’t easy with an up-before- dawn. bed- after-dusk 7/7 existance and an obligation to the landowner.
Apropo
The dilapidated and much repaired and reformed remains of the birthplace of the “4 saints” St I of Seville + siblings in Punicly and Latinly named New-new- town where I am typing , a site just 100 yards downhill from the ruins of the Reconquest Cathedral , whose crypt showed some signs of 8th century. Christian use, all built into oubuildings edging the ruins of the Roman theatre, rediscovered some thirty years back, last occupied into the early 20th century by the little sisters of the poor and the old people they looked after, was razed by the then “forwardlooking” local authorities and the site is now part of the small square in front of the Townhall, where plenty of you cousins pass on med cruises’ stops, as did your med flagship with a female admiral, and crew with shore leave, about a year ago, so a reader of FR Z may well be amongst the same.( ST I’s life was wholly in Seville, however, and his body was reinterred some centuries back in Leon, in a 10th century church well worth a side trip in a city well worth a sidetrip, and on the principal way to Santigao, BTW) Locals are more commonly named after St Fulgencio and St Florentina than their Bro.
You found my action figure from “Canticle for Liebowitz”
My vote has to go to RMT!
Somewhere, I have a glow-in-the-dark praying child — sort of a bas relief that tucked into a wooden holder. I’ve seen glow-in-the-dark guardian angel statues, too, but not any glowing saints!
Fr Z:
I suspect that patronage happens before the Magisterium gets around to making it official. ;) Despite this, obviously we shouldn’t presume, but…
We should not ignore the fact that they made the statue glow in the dark. That just underlines the correctness of the attribution.
Your closet contains lots of awesome. It must be a portal to Cathiolic Land… like Narnia only different. (Surely someone with a bit more Latin than I can come up with a better name!)
For what it’s worth, my first thought was of Moses with his iPad. ( Did not see the keys at first.)
@Suburbanbanshee: is the Infant of Prague a saint, or a visitation of Christ as a child? I’m still unclear on that concept. I have seen numerous glow-in-the-dark statues of said Infant. But the saint question is still open. Also, I have seen glowing St. Josephs, and plenty of glowing St. Marys, but that could also be because they are members of the Holy Family. I even had a GITD medallion of St. Jude from the St. Jude Traveler’s Club, issued by the National Shrine of St. Jude, wherever that is.
What can I say? I live near Chicago/Whiting, and visit a lot of ‘vintage’ or flea-market type venues.