Patron Saint of Internet Shines in New Data Center at Boston College

The Vatican has declared that St. Isidore of Seville is the patron saint of the Internet, and now his image — in the form of a stained-glass window — casts its colors in Boston College’s new data center (left).

According to The Boston Globe, the center is housed in a building formerly owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and sold to the college in 2004. When the college took over, it preserved this and other stained-glass windows in what had been a seminary dormitory.

One of the windows depicts St. Isidore (c. 560-636), who served as a powerful bishop in present-day Spain and is best known for his voluminous writing on a host of topics. His most influential work was the Etymologies, also known as the Origins, an encyclopedic tract in which he tried to record everything that was known. Small wonder that the church saw fit to recognize him as the Internet’s patron.