The Story Behind Our Lady of Procrastination

Some patron saints emerge from ancient tradition. Some emerge from folklore. And some emerge because I looked at my overwhelming to-do list, opened seventeen browser tabs instead of answering a single email, reorganized my sticker inventory for no reason, and thought: “There should probably be a saint for this.” That’s how Our Lady of Procrastination was born.

She began as a joke — the kind of joke that instantly resonates with every creative person, scattered mother, student, writer, gamer, and exhausted adult who has ever whispered: “I work best under pressure,” while actively making their own life harder.

Somewhere along the way, however, she became unexpectedly tender too. Because procrastination is rarely just laziness.

Sometimes it’s fear. Sometimes it’s burnout. Sometimes it’s perfectionism wearing sweatpants and pretending to scroll social media “for inspiration.” Sometimes it’s the paralysis of caring so deeply about something that starting feels impossible.

I think a lot of people needed permission to laugh about that with compassion instead of shame. That became the heart of the piece.

Visually, I loved leaning into all the things I tend to procrastinate on - the laundry, cleaning, and sorting through the mail. There have been many times I've said to the pile of unfolded clothes that I'll see them after I get my nails done. (Notice the red hair. Perhaps I'm seeing myself quite literally in this image?) Imagining Mary this way suddenly made my human frailty not seem so disappointing.

Not because procrastination itself is holy, but because humanity is.

People have always brought their real lives into devotion. Creating Our Lady of Procrastination felt strangely traditional in its own way, because the point of having a patron saint is to have someone to pray alongside us as we go about our daily lives.

Our Lady of Procrastination has become the patron of delayed projects, convention crunch deadlines, untouched craft supplies, unread emails, writers staring into the void, and everyone who has ever cleaned their entire house instead of doing the one task they actually needed to do.

Which, statistically speaking, is most of us.

And honestly? I think she’d forgive this blog post for being submitted slightly past deadline. At the very least she'd pray with us that next day we get back on schedule.