I mentioned St. Ambrose, patron saint of bees, a week or so ago, and I managed to find another pro-invertebrate saint: St. Felix of Nola.

(There’s plenty of anti-insect saints; I suppose I’ll get around to writing about them someday, since invoking a patron saint against a termite infestation has a certain appeal.) Anyway–

St. Felix was either running from Roman soldiers or imprisoned (versions vary) and found a hole to hide in. Spiders spun a web over the opening of the hole, hiding him from discovery. Some accounts suggest that he became a spider lover, preventing spider squashing in his presence.

Certainly he seems to have been an exemplary person, sharing what he had freely with those less fortunate.

Felix is frequently represented by a cobweb or a priest with a cobweb. This unsourced image is from the Patron Saints Index.