Feb 21: Patron saint of insomniacs!
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:48 pm
Thought you might find this interesting. This is Facebook post I made last year when I was still suffering from insomnia and RLS (iron treatments in Sept/Oct have kept the RLS at bay):
When I was young I read a children's book of saint stories that featured St. Peter Damian. The two things I remembered were that his feast day was my birthday--February 23--and that we should pray to him for a good night's sleep. I had insomnia even as a child and would pray to him frequently for help.
One day I found out that his feast day was actually February 21; St. Polycarp was the 23rd. I was quite annoyed about this as I had no idea who Polycarp was, but I sure didn't like his name. (I know and appreciate him now.) I stopped praying to Peter Damian for help sleeping because I figured that wasn't true either.
But here I am awake at 2am on his feast day, and guess what? I looked up his biography and he suffered from severe insomnia when he was young and overly zealous with his penances and so indeed is the patron saint of insomniacs. AND his feast day really was on February 23 until 1969 when it was changed to the 21st.
I will now pray to him for some sleep!