St. IGNUcious versus St. Philomena

A few weeks ago, I mentioned on Reddit how I learned GNU Emacs in part to take my mind off of an emotional breakup. Someone replied with the following comment.

May Saint IGNUcious and the church of EMACS bless you in your further romantic endeavors.

(The Reddit user is referring to the Church of Emacs, which Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project and Free Software Foundation, started as a parody religious movement. The name iGNUcious is a pun on the name Saint Ignatius of Loyola.)

Well, I belong to a serious church with serious saints, so I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this comment. I knew it was a joke, so I felt like I should respond with something witty. However, nothing witty came – until the release of Emacs 27.1 on 11 August, which happened to coincide with the feast of Saint Philomena.

I cannot help but wonder if it was more than coincidence that the Emacs 27.1 release was cut on feast day of Saint Philomena.

St. Philomena’s story recently reached out to me and touched my soul in a deep way that I cannot easily explain. I encourage you to read her full life story as expressed in the nun’s vision. The short version: At age 13, Philomena’s father arranged her to marry Emperor Diocletian as part of a deal to preserve peace in her Greek state. Philomena had made a vow of virginity at age 11 (similar to the vows of celibacy that the religious make today), so she refused Diocletian’s marriage proposal. Refusing to take “no” for an answer, Diocletian imprisoned Philomena and ordered her flayed. She healed miraculously overnight. The next day, Diocletian tried to drown Philomena in the river, but she was miraculously saved. Then, Diocletian ordered arrows to be shot into her, but Philomena miraculously healed again. Diocletian tried again, but the arrows deflected and struck the archers. Finally, Diocletian beheaded Philomena. (Bear in mind that Philomena was a 13 year old girl when all this happened.)

I have admiration for Richard Stallman and the GNU project for their fight for libre¹ software. Nowadays almost every software developer is using the GNU compiler whether he knows it or not. Linux (or GNU/Linux as Stallman prefers to call it) has taken over datacenters and phones around the world.

However, Stallman’s story pales in comparison to Philomena’s strength of will. Stallman gave up a normal career to create a libre operating system. Philomena gave up her royal life as an empress, endured horrible tortures at the age of 13, and died because of her dedication to what she believed in. (Also, Philomena is only one of many Christian saints with equivalently powerful stories.)

I’m sorry, but there is no contest.

St. IGNUcious (Richard Stallman)2	St. Philomena3
Self-proclaimed saint in the Church of Emacs	Recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
“Lone wolf” of MIT	Greek princess
Prophetic look	Beautiful young girl
Stare into eyes: nothing happens	Stare into eyes: your soul melts with beauty and adoration
Crown of gray hair	Crown of lilies, symbolizing virginity and martyrdom
Carries Lemote, symbolizing software freedom	Carries arrows and palm fronds, symbolizing virginity and martyrdom
Refuses to use anything from Microsoft, Apple, or Amazon	Refused to give herself to Diocletian: “I neither care for you as a lover, nor fear you as a tyrant.”
Tried to impeach God	Chose the Divine Spouse over Diocletian
Willingly sacrificed job and career at MIT	Willingly sacrificed life as an empress
Advocates abortion4 and antinatalism	Saves small children from danger
Ate mystery substance from foot5	Ate the body of Christ
Devotions: removal of MS Windows, using Emacs	Devotion: the cord (to preserve chastity)
Can’t cure his own hand pain	Several miraculous healings, heals others too

I’m not offended, but I’m going to stick with Christian saints. Plus, Philomena is adorable. :-)

• Contact me
• LinkedIn thread