Two Patrons in One

Dear Sister,

I'm not sure that I'm submitting this question in the proper place, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Yesterday my daughter and her husband discovered that they are to be the proud parents of twins. We're ecstatic. So, I did a web search for "Patron Saint of Twins" which resulted in Saints Cosmos and Damian. They were twins, so that would make sense.

But I can find only ONE site that refers to them as the Patron Saints of Twins. All the rest simply show them as the Patron Saints of physicians.

Which is correct?

Is the question I get asked the most, "Where do I leave a question?" Yes, I believe it might be the most asked question. You've gone to the right place, the comments section. I read all the comments. I don't comment very often. Sometimes other readers do such a superb job of answering a question in there that I just leave it go. So if you've asked a question, be sure and check back in the comments section anyhow, because the people who leave comments are very kind and very wise.

Twins! How exciting. And terrifying.

To answer your question, both are correct. As I mentioned yesterday, patron saints were people who have something to do with your situation, problem, job, hobby, dog....the idea is that you pick a person who had to deal with something like what you are up against. Sometimes it's a stretch, like the story of St. Blaise and his relationship with people who like to knit.

St. Blaise was tortured with a comb used to comb sheep. Wool comes from sheep. Knitters knit with wool. I'll bet there are plenty of saints who actually knitted, but since no one saint has ever been singled out as a knitting maniac, St. Blaise will have to do. Anyhow we love St. Blaise, even though he's the reason I never liked fish as a child.

Except for those fish sticks.

At least with Cosmos and Damian we don't have to extrapolate. There were twins. They were also doctors. They are also the patron saints of hairdressers. (Many saints have multiple patronages.)

"What?" I hear from the peanut gallery. Yes, hairdressers. It's not really even a stretch. In oldey olden times, doctors were also barbers. The doctor's office and the barber shop were the same place well into the 19th century. Hairdressers are barbers for women, so St. Cosmos and Damian are also at the ready for places like "The Epitome of Beauty" (my all time favorite name of a hair salon).

You might also want to call on St. Gerard, the patron saint for childbirth and St. Raymond Nonnatus, the patron saint of tiny babies. Then you can switch over to the Holy Innocents for their babyhood and move onto St. Nicholas when they enter childhood. From there you can go with St. Maria Goretti and/or St. Aloysius for their teen years (and St. Monica for mothers of teens). After that, we'll just have to see what shakes out with them. St. Thomas Aquinas for the college bound? St. Joseph if they enter trade school, St. Scholastica if they have a vocation.

They'll also have their own guardian angels, and whatever names are chosen for them, those saints. For girls, be sure and get "Mary" in there somewhere.