In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Feels like you're miles from here, in other towns with lesser names
Where the unholy ghost doesn't tell Mary or William exactly what they want to hear
You remember the house on Ridge Road told you and the Devil to both just leave me alone
If this is salvation, I can show you the trembling
You'll just have to trust me. I'm scared
I am the patron saint of lost causes
Aren't we all to you just near lost causes?
Aren't we all to you just lost Tommy, you left behind something that will mean everything right before you die.
What if you gained the whole world?
You've already lost four little souls from your life
Widows and orphans aren't hard to find
They're home missing daddy who's saving the abandoned tonight
Wish your drinking would hurry and kill you
Sympathy's better than having to tell you the truth
That you are the patron saint of lost causes
All you are to them is now a lost cause
All you are to them is now, causes
Billy, don't you understand?
Timothy stood as long as he could and now you made his faith disappear
More like a magician and less like a man of the cloth
We're not questioning God.
Just those he chose to carry on His cross
We're no better, you'll see
Just all of us, the lost causes
Aren't we all to you just lost causes?
Are we all to you lost?
Lost causes
So all we are to you,
Is all we are, is all we are
All we are is all we are
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
(Lost causes, all we are is all we are)
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
(To you, lost)
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Take what you will, what you will and leave
Could you kill, could you kill me
If the world was on fire and nothing was left but hope or desire
And take all that I could bring forth, is this hell
Or am I on the floor over-desperate?
Hold hands streaming of blood again?
And then take full weight of me
Guard my dreams, figure this out, It's me on my own
Helpless, hurting, hell
Will you stay strong as you promised?
'Cause I'm stranded and bare
Meanness is washed up in all that I am is God
Take this and all
Then grace takes me to a place
Of the father you never had
Ripping and breaking and tearing apart
This is not heaven
This is my hell
Where the unholy ghost doesn't tell Mary or William exactly what they want to hear
You remember the house on Ridge Road told you and the Devil to both just leave me alone
If this is salvation, I can show you the trembling
You'll just have to trust me. I'm scared
I am the patron saint of lost causes
Aren't we all to you just near lost causes?
Aren't we all to you just lost Tommy, you left behind something that will mean everything right before you die.
What if you gained the whole world?
You've already lost four little souls from your life
Widows and orphans aren't hard to find
They're home missing daddy who's saving the abandoned tonight
Wish your drinking would hurry and kill you
Sympathy's better than having to tell you the truth
That you are the patron saint of lost causes
All you are to them is now a lost cause
All you are to them is now, causes
Billy, don't you understand?
Timothy stood as long as he could and now you made his faith disappear
More like a magician and less like a man of the cloth
We're not questioning God.
Just those he chose to carry on His cross
We're no better, you'll see
Just all of us, the lost causes
Aren't we all to you just lost causes?
Are we all to you lost?
Lost causes
So all we are to you,
Is all we are, is all we are
All we are is all we are
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
(Lost causes, all we are is all we are)
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
(To you, lost)
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Take what you will, what you will and leave
Could you kill, could you kill me
If the world was on fire and nothing was left but hope or desire
And take all that I could bring forth, is this hell
Or am I on the floor over-desperate?
Hold hands streaming of blood again?
And then take full weight of me
Guard my dreams, figure this out, It's me on my own
Helpless, hurting, hell
Will you stay strong as you promised?
'Cause I'm stranded and bare
Meanness is washed up in all that I am is God
Take this and all
Then grace takes me to a place
Of the father you never had
Ripping and breaking and tearing apart
This is not heaven
This is my hell
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my friend and i have been obsessed with this song for a while now after i introduced her to anberlin, and she found this on a youtube video called "Patron Saints" (there are more than one):
Stephen: " "Fin" is a series of four stories, that all tie together in the line 'patron saint of lost causes.' The first story is a personal memoir about my life as a child and the pull on my soul even then. I deliberated even at eight years old, that it would be better that God and the devil would just both leave me alone. The second story is about a couple from my early teen years church who cried for a miracle. It was a promised miracle, and it never came about. That leaves an impression. The third is about a mentor that used the guse of 'missions work' to leave his family in shambles and eventually decay. That plays with your salvation, when one experiences it. (The fourth story is about) Billy, a traveling 'healer' who crippled my life and growth right in front of me. All these things and many, many others made me lose my salvation. But later in life i realized i needed to stop looking at Christians to see Christ. I wrestled with God, and he won."