-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: If there was a god of mapping...
Date:   Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:42:28 -0500
From:   Michael Holt <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>



Thanks for the wonderful links.  This kind of question is my favorite type.

St Christopher was reduced to a "local cult" in the Great Purge of 1969,
but his cult lives on undiminished.  None of the other saints appear to
have been assigned mapmakers or cartographers by those names.  I found
two sources that identified St Thomas the Apostle as the patron of
surveyors (http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-thomas-the-apostle/) but he's
usually called the patron of architects; some judgement may be in order,
as surveying in context may be more civil engineering than mapmaking.
He's the one relevant saint I could find whose symbol is a tool of
measurement (the T-square) -- the others were builders or associated
with buildings.    Perhaps it's time to petition for a proper saint for
cartographers (no, I don't know how to do that, but if anyone's
interested, send me a note).

Saint Thomas the Apostle is celebrated on July 3.

Aerial photography is addressed by the Vatican.  St Veronica is
patroness of photographers, and aviation is covered by three: Joseph of
Cupertino, Our Lady of Loreto, and Therese of Lisieux.

I'll check my Greek and Roman references, and see what else there might be.


Michael Holt
Retired and bored
--

...And they lived happily ever after.