St. Eligius

Who they were

Eligius was the finest goldsmith of the Frankish world. The story that made his name has him commissioned by King Clothar to make one gold throne and returning with two, having refused to pad the accounting with the customary skim, and the astonished king made the honest craftsman his master of the mint and counsellor.

He used the position the way you would hope. His wealth went to ransoming slaves, captives freed at the ports in lots, some of whom stayed on as his brothers in the work, and to founding monasteries. At fifty he gave up the court entirely, was ordained, and became Bishop of Noyon, evangelizing the rough country of Flanders until his death in 660. The horseshoe legend, in which he removes a leg to shoe a difficult horse and then restores it, is medieval folklore, but it fixed him forever as patron of farriers, and the patronage rode the technology: blacksmiths, then machinists, then garages. In this city that lineage lands at home, because Eligius is by direct descent the patron saint of mechanics.

Why people turn to St. Eligius

Mechanics, machinists, toolmakers, jewellers, and welders: the hands on trades, which in Detroit is not a niche patronage but a civic one. Veterinarians and horse people by the old farrier line.

How to ask their intercession

Before the job that has to be right. His standard was the second throne. And for anyone whose work is honest measure in a padded world.