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>Hilda is considered one of the patron saints of learning and culture, including poetry.

Interesting detail. I always enjoy learning about who's the patron saint of this or that. Why did the tradition start, and how does each saint get assigned a domain? How offbeat it can get? And are "they" planning to update it occasionally to match how the world has changed?

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I went to Catholic school and yes they do in fact update saints. There's a patron Saint for the internet (Isidore of Seville), movies (Genesius), and astronauts (Joseph of Cupertino). I would say the tradition combines derives from Greco-Roman theosymbolism where divine beings represent specific domains of contemporary life. Note that Protestant and Baptist denominations do not generally recognize patron saints.

You can see a list of all them here and the rationale for their patronage as well. Pretty interesting to see the swath of culture and technology they cover: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/patrons.aspx

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