Saint James Matamoros the Americas as a rival force to the indigenous gods, and protector of Spaniards from the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He was depicted as a conquistador. The Order of Santiago, a Spanish order of knighthood, originates from St. James' supposed involvement at the Battle of Clavijo. A wide number of Mexican settlements were named Matamoros by Spanish settlers in honour of their patron saint. Matamoros can also be found as a Hispanic family name, for instance Miguel Matamoros. In the 1620s Spain debated who should be the country's patron—James, the current patron, or a combination of him and the
The Patron Saint of Eels The Patron Saint of Eels The Patron Saint of Eels (2005) is a novel by Australian author Gregory Day. It won the 2006 ALS Gold Medal. A moral tale, the novel tells the story of an Italian saint, Fra Ionio, who comes down from heaven to the small Australian town of Mangowak, to save some eels trapped in a ditch and to teach life lessons to some locals. Lisa Gorton in "The Age" noted that the novel "is gentle in spirit, reverent and celebratory", and "is as much a tribute to the life of a small town as it is