Baldomar

Baldomar is the patron saint of keys and locks and we had need of his assistance this evening as my husband broke his key in the lock of the front door… it just snapped completely off! Luckily I was at home so I could let him in; he tried to get the broken piece of key out of the lock but to no avail and in the end we had to ring a locksmith; he came a couple of hours later and quickly and efficiently (and expensively) changed our lock and gave us some new keys.

Now if I was a believer in saints and their ability to aid people I certainly would have been calling on St Baldomar who is the patron saint of locksmiths, locks and keys and came from Lyon in France; I cannot find anything at all about him except he was chaste, and very kind to poor people… but that is what you might expect from a saint.  There are other saints associated with keys and locks, although not necessarily patron saints of them;

• St Benno of Meisen threw the keys of the cathedral into the River Elba, luckily a fish returned them  to him but I don’t think he’s a very good candidate to help people with key problems – St Fish of Elba would be better!
• St Lioba of St Petersburg lost the keys to the convent but luckily a passing fox found them; again I don’t rate her as much use to intercede on behalf of lost keys, St Fox of St Petersburg is obviously the one!
• St Edwin of Worcester was a pagan king who converted to Christianity; I cannot find much about what he is patron saint of, but I did come across another story of a lost key and it being returned by a fish
• St Servatius of Tongeren was given a silver key by St Peter… so maybe he’s a better bet than Benno, Lioba or Erwin
• St Maurilio of Angers was another one who threw his keys into a river and had them returned by a fish; there are three rivers converging at Angers, the Mayenne, the Sarthe, and the Loir, and I don’t have any idea which one the St Fish was in at the time
• St Lolan there is some long-winded tale about St Lolan going from Rome to Scotland and having difficulty getting into the church and having his hand cut off, or cutting off his own hand… not auspicious as a saint of keys and locks
• St. Hubert was also given a key by St Peter, but did better than St Servatius because his key was gold

I think all in all, if you want to have an intercession about keys, lost, broken or otherwise, St Fish is the right one – and if St Fish is busy changing someone’s lock, then try St Fox.