This came up in conversation the other day. There’s a patron saint for most everything you can think of, and for some reason I thought that the bikers’ patron saint was Gabriel, who also looks after messengers.
But no, it’s Columbanus, an Irish saint who lived from 540 AD to 615 AD. Recurring themes in the stories of Columbanus are virtue, women and beer.
There’s much to be found on the Web about Columbanus, here’s one to get you started. And, of course, there’s a Wikipedia article.
But near as I can tell there’s no Saint Alphonzo – as in Saint Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast, a zippy little number by the late Frank Zappa.
De-Anglicize “Alphonso” to “Alfonso” and you get 36,500,000 for that saint’s name!
http://www.google.com/search?q=saint+alfonso&btnG=Search&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=vaj&sa=2
Indeed! But y’know, I actually made a different spelling error. There’s a ‘z’, not an ‘s’ in there. I’ve corrected the error in the post. Normally I’d cite that, but the ink’s still wet. Watch the smudge!