All 5 Uses of

patron
in
The Magic Mountain

And so Naphta was permitted to enter within the walls of the Stella Matutina, whose challenging academic and social atmosphere had long been an object of his own intellectual longings and appetites; what was more, this turn of events had given him a new teacher and patron far more capable than his previous one of appreciating and fostering his character, a master whose value lay in his cool cosmopolitanism, and it was the lad's greatest desire to enter such circles.†
Chpt 6.6

He spoke of the Egyptian god Thoth, identical with the Hellenistic god Hermes the Thrice Great, and worshiped as the inventor of writing, the patron of libraries, the inspiration for all intellectual endeavor.†
Chpt 6.8

The whole table felt it; even Herr Albin—who wagered with the cold calculation of a croupier in a Monte Carlo casino, where he claimed to have been a regular patron—only partially mastered his agitation.†
Chpt 7.3 *

One can only say that, had there not been a Pieter Peeperkorn, the others would have felt much more constrained to take sides, when, for example, Leo Naphta defended the fundamental, archrevolutionary nature of the Church against the teachings of Herr Settembrini, who asserted that her sole historical purpose had been to serve as the patron of the dark forces of inertia and reaction and then went on to claim that the affirmation of life and a future open to revolution and renewal was bound up with the opposing principles of enlightenment, science, and progress, which had arisen in the glorious epoch that witnessed the rebirth of classical education—and drove home this profession of faith wit†
Chpt 7.4

Definitions:

(1) (patron as in: a patron of the arts)
a regular customer; or someone who gives money or support to an organization, cause, or person
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

In ancient Roman history, patron referred to the more powerful person in a complex client-patron relationship. The term is still used in some cultures today to describe a property owner who is in charge of workers.

Also see patron saint.

Much more rarely, a patron is the proprietor of an inn.