A popular email joke about the term “cc” (carbon copy) is:
 
Q: Who’s the patron saint of email?
A: Francis of a CC.
 
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) never sent an email, of course. The joke has been cited in print since at least 2007.
 
“Who is the patron saint of security cameras?”/“St. Francis of a CCTV” is a similar riddle.
 
   
Wikipedia: Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi (Italian: San Francesco d’Assisi), born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named as Francesco (1181/1182 – 3 October 1226), was an Italian Roman Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.
 
Pope Gregory IX canonised Francis on 16 July 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated Patron saint of Italy. He later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4.
 
Wikipedia: Carbon copy
Email
In email, the abbreviation CC indicates those who are to receive a copy of a message addressed primarily to another. The list of CCed recipients is visible to all other recipients of the message. An additional BCC (blind carbon copy) field is available for hidden notification; recipients listed in the BCC field receive a copy of the message, but are not shown on any other recipient’s copy (including other BCC recipients). It is considered good practice to indicate to the other recipients that a new participant has been added to the list of receivers (e.g. by writing “I have CCed John Doe”). In common usage, the To field recipients are the primary audience of the message, CC field recipients are others whom the author wishes to publicly inform of the message, and BCC field recipients are those surreptitiously being informed of the communication.
     
Ask MetaFilter
Who’s the patron saint of email?
St Francis of a cc
posted by bonaldi at 7:44 AM on February 8, 2007
 
Metro (UK)
10 greatest one-liners
Default author imageTom PhillipsThursday 14 Jun 2007 3:41 pm
(...)
Who’s the patron saint of email?St Francis of a cc.
Modern. Vibrant. Truly dreadful.
 
Twitter
Adrianna Tan
‏@skinnylatte
Someone’s telling me a horrible joke about St Francis over Skype from Porto Alegre. (“The patron saint of email: St Francis of a CC”.)
10:08 PM - 3 Mar 2008
 
Google Groups: alt.callahans
Announcing the NEW Patron Saint of Internet E-mail
Harry Mary Andruschak
10/9/08
St. Francis of a c.c.
 
Twitter
crazycga
‏@crazycga
Bad joke:  who’s the patron saint of email?  Answer: St. Francis of a cc.
4:59 PM - 27 Oct 2008
 
Google Books
Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine:
America’s Funniest Jokes, Quotes, and Cartoons from Reader’s Digest Magazine
By Editors of Reader’s Digest
Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Association
2011
Pg. ?:
Who’s the patron saint of e-mail?
Saint Francis of a CC.
—TERRY SANGSTER
 
Facebook
Fairwood Community United Methodist Church
February 21, 2016
Q: Who is the Patron Saint of Email?
A: St. Francis of a CC