It is generally accepted that April 4 is celebrated as World Internet Day. In fact, this is just one of many similar histories. For example, this holiday can be celebrated on October 29, when it was first possible to transfer data between two computers at a distance, and on May 17, the day the first web server was introduced. Meduza tells why the idea of celebrating World Internet Day on April 4 arose and how a Catholic saint from the distant Middle Ages is connected with this.
Catholics really do have a patron of the Internet. – Even if informal
In the early 1990s and 2000s, the Internet became a part of the lives of many people around the world. The total number of users at the time was estimated at approximately . A community of Catholics quickly formed online, one of the largest religions in the world.
Its representatives believed that Catholics, according to Christian traditions, do not need their own holiday as much as they need a heavenly patron. The Great Martyr Panteleimon is also considered the patron saint of doctors, and Thomas Aquinas – scientists. Having already received their saint, online Catholics will also find a professional celebration – according to the history of the Church’s veneration of his memory.
In the late 1990s, the technologically advanced part of the flock began writing to Pope John Paul II. The faithful suggested that the Pope approve Isidore of Seville, a bishop who lived in the sixth and seventh centuries, as the patron of the Internet. Catholics honor his memory on April 4, the day of his death in the year 636. In February 2001, the media published booksthat Pope John Paul II “is considering granting Saint Isidore of Seville the status of patron saint of Internet users and Internet programmers.”
However, the matter did not go further. Officially, Seville was never “appointed” as the patron saint of the Internet. “There are many articles that point to Isidore being declared the Saint of the Internet,” male In 2020 by writer and theologian Pastor Matthew Schneider. — But in reality there seems to have been little discussion about potential Internet patrons within the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Moreover, many believers and clergy felt that the saint who lived in the sixth and seventh centuries was not well suited to the latest technology. There have been proposals to give the Internet a more modern patron – for example, Blessed Giacomo Alberioni (1884–1971), one of the pioneers of church media. In 1914, he established the Society of St. Paul, which later opened its own printing house, radio station and film studio. In 2003, Alberioni was nominated beat In an online survey of the Santiebeati.it portal, an unofficial Italian directory dedicated to Catholic saints.
Then, in the Catholic environment, he arose spontaneously reverence Mubarak (from 2025 – Saint) Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 of leukemia at the age of 15. During his life, Carlo managed to independently create many Catholic web resources: about church volunteerism, miracles of saints and much more. But his nomination has not yet received official approval from the Vatican.
In other words, Catholics have never been able to come up with a “single official” patron saint for the World Wide Web. After 2001, neither John Paul II nor his successors returned to this issue seriously. Most Catholic sources, according to established tradition, Named Still the patron of the internet is not Alberione or Acutis, but rather the initially suggested Isidore of Seville. That’s why April 4 is often called World Internet Day.
Isidore of Seville was one of the first to attempt to create a world encyclopedia (and the expected hyperlinks)
Saint Isidore of Seville child Circa 560 (exact date of birth unknown) in the Visigothic Kingdom in what is now Spain and Portugal. Historians classify this monarchy as one of the “barbarian states,” that is, the kingdoms that were established on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire that fell in 476.
The definition of “barbarian” here should not be taken in the usual sense – the Romans called almost all foreigners that way. The Visigoths, even before the fall of Rome, came under its influence greatly and adopted Latin, Christian religion and culture. It was the preservation of ancient knowledge and its adaptation to the worldview of the Church that Isidore, who came from a noble Romano-Gothic family, was engaged in. From about 600 until his death, he served as bishop of Guizbal, modern-day Seville.
He left the bishop behind Complete series Collected works devoted to pure theology, secular history and natural sciences: “Conservation”, “On the Nature of Things”, “Differentiations”. In it, the author tried to bring together Christian texts with the heritage of ancient pagan philosophers.
Of particular note is the “Etymology” – one of the first attempts in world history to write a world encyclopedia summarizing all the knowledge collected by their ancestors; Of course, the author explained all the main issues of the world order from a biblical point of view. Moreover, Isidore is actively involved in this work user Cross-referencing system. This gives contemporary admirers of the saint reason to claim that he pre-empted the principle of hyperlinks and thus deserves to be considered a saint of the Internet.
Seville also entered history as a fighter against what was popular in Spain in those years and as a close advisor to several Visigothic kings. The culmination of his activities was the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633, where the clergy took a number of measures to unify parish life.
The Orthodox Church has an ambivalent attitude towards Isidore of Seville. Western saints who lived before – for example, the Irish Patrick or the British Alban – are usually recognized in Orthodoxy as one of them, but with the Spaniard, everything is somewhat more complicated.
Isidore was one of the first in Western Christendom to promote the doctrine of the Son, which is that the Holy Spirit comes not only from God the Father but also from the Son. In the 11th century, this became one of the theological justifications for the division of the Church into Catholics and Orthodox (the latter strongly condemned the new doctrine). Therefore, the same Russian Orthodox Church, although it recognizes the merits of Isidore as a major church figure, Not included Spanish in its official calendar.
And yet – what is the real day of the Internet?
It would make sense to celebrate World Internet Day on the day the World Wide Web was created. The problem is that we are talking about a very complex process. For the Internet to appear in its usual form, it took more than 20 years of work by hundreds of enthusiasts from different countries.
If you wish, you can celebrate the Internet’s birthday on October 29, when It happened The first session of data transfer between two computers at a distance – from the University of California to Stanford – in 1969. And also January 1 (application protocol in 1983) And May 17 when It happened Internal view of a web server in 1991.
The last of the three events is the most important for most modern Internet users. After all, it was the developments of the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee, called the World Wide Web, that over time allowed a wide audience to access online pages, follow links and exchange the information received. By the way, on the same date Matches World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, established by the United Nations, is generally a holiday close in spirit.
Don’t forget that the Internet reached different countries at different times, so the “birthday of the Internet” can be different everywhere. For example, in Russia, it was April 7, 1994. Then an entry about the .RU domain appeared in the international database of national domains.
The authorities remember this date and have tried to celebrate it before. But it turned out somehow without a spark: for example, two years ago it was all over He went down to To formal awards and lectures for teenagers. It is generally unlikely that this date will be widely celebrated in 2026. After the authorities have practically broken the country’s Internet, this will seem like nothing more than an evil mockery.
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