The Sleep of Saints
We must be sure that even the most mortified among the saints were as glad to get to bed as we are. “When a man really loves God,” St. Philip Neri said, “he comes to such a state in the end that he is obliged to say, ‘Lord, let me get some sleep.’ ”
One of the Psalms has this verse: “The saints shall be joyful on their beds”; and if this refers to Paradise, then, in one of the others, David says, “I have remembered Thee upon my bed.”
St. Thérèse, in her Histoire d’une ame, confides all her weaknesses to us and among them that she used to doze during the morning meditation. “But I reflect that little children awake or asleep are equally dear to their parents.” The Gospel can find some excuse even for the three Apostles who slept in the Garden of Gethsemane, leaving our Lord to watch alone. “Their eyes were heavy,” it says; and our Lord Himself, although He mildly rebuked them, did not wake them up. “Sleep on now, and take your rest.”
St. Clement the Pope, a disciple of St. Peter, tells us that the apostle was fond of recalling details of our Lord’s goodness to His disciples, and among them, that when He was traveling with them through Judea, He would often visit them during the night to make sure that they were warm and well covered.
The early ascetics certainly made heroic efforts to confine sleep within the narrowest possible limits; but needless to say, they were never able to dispense with this necessity. It is related of St. Christine, St. Colette, St. Catherine of Ricci, St. Elphide, St. Flore, Bl. Agatha of the Cross, and others that they lived for long periods without the blessing of sleep. This, however, was a miraculous privilege akin to that of those who lived without any other nourishment than the Holy Eucharist.
St. Macarius is said to have gone without sleep for twenty days at a time; St. Dorotheus kept himself awake at night by making mats, and St. Jerome tells us how, when sleep crept over him in spite of his efforts, he dashed himself upon the ground. St. Catherine of Siena took a short sleep only every two nights, and this she called “Paying the debt of sleep to the body.” St. Martin of Tours usually slept on the ground, and St. Paula never slept in bed, even during illness. For fifteen years, St. Pachomius took his repose sitting upon a stone. St. Charles Borromeo usually slept in a chair or on the top of the bed in his clothes. When at last he was induced to get right into bed, he insisted on having a mattress of straw. He is responsible for one of the chilliest pieces of advice ever given by a saint: “The best way not to find the bed too cold is to go to bed colder than the bed is.”
But, of course, such extremes must be judged not by our ideas of comfort and convenience, but by theirs. These saints lived in very robust times and in much warmer climates than ours; and, after all, the bed matters but little, provided there is sound and refreshing sleep. Probably they slept far more soundly than do we. And others besides saints have managed very well with a small amount of sleep.
Sleep is like food; some require more than others, and the quantity of each is very largely a matter of custom. We find no difficulty in persuading ourselves that we require a good deal of both; and the saints, with like facility, persuaded themselves that they required very little. Nature is very adaptable. It is astonishing what we can quite conveniently do without when it comes to the point, and it is perhaps safe to say that the system accustoms itself with greater ease to privations than to excesses. Gradual and systematic practice made their mortifications a second nature to the saints. We have already seen with what prudence St. Simeon habituated himself to his perch on the top of the pillar; and it is related of St. Peter of Alcantara that he inured himself to his vigils by degrees, taking care that they should never be prejudicial to his health.
And, besides, the saints had this enormous advantage: their minds and hearts were in a habitual state of tranquility. Nothing exhausts the springs of our vitality more readily than our disorderly passions, our inordinate ambitions, and the multiplicity of our desires. The saints were free from the guilty worries and anxieties that undermine the repose of the worldly. They had that most restful of all pillows: a good conscience. If the truth were known, perhaps St. Peter of Alcantara had in a week more hours of genuine natural sleep than many of the butterflies of society enjoy in a month.
The saints never hesitated to deprive themselves of sleep and rest in the interest of what they conceived to be duty or charity. There is nothing fanatical about that, because men and women of the world do the same for their own ends. The House of Commons thinks nothing of protracting its sittings right through the night. People will sit all night in a queue at the doors of a theater. During the trial of Marie Antoinette, as Belloc relates, “none in the staring audience that watched the slow determination of the business would suffer the approach of sleep.”
The prudent Rule of St. Benedict allowed each monk a mat, a blanket, a rug, and a pillow. They were also commanded to sleep in their habits, and from the point of view of comfort, this must have been an improvement on the common custom of sleeping without nightclothes of any description. St. Jerome’s pillow, like Jacob’s, was made of stone; but St. Francis of Assisi had a feather pillow that the Brethren compelled him to use on account of the infirmity of his eyes. When he was in the hermitage at Greccio and could not sleep, he blamed the Devil for it. “I do perceive that this Devil is passing crafty, forasmuch as not being able to do a hurt unto my soul, he is fain to hinder a necessity of my body in such sort that I cannot sleep, and by this means to hinder the cheerfulness of my heart.”
Those who find it difficult to get up in the morning — that is to say, nearly everybody — will rejoice to know that there is a saint who makes it his business to come to the rescue of this particular infirmity. He is St. Vitus, or Guy, a martyr who suffered in the fourth century and whose very appropriate symbol is a rooster.
A monastic chronicle tells us of a saintly old woman employed to ring the bell for the offices of the Church of St. Romuald in Malines. The chronicle praises the fidelity and the punctuality of this woman and relates as a thing to be remembered and extolled that she kept a rooster to serve as an alarm clock, lest she might fail in her duty. If she had been canonized, she would certainly be par excellence the patron of all sluggards.
Should this book fall into the hands of the bedridden, it will console such to know that there were saints, and many of them, who did little else here below except sanctify their sick beds. Anne Catherine Emmerich, Bl. Anna Maria Taigi, St. Veronica Guiliani, and St. Marie Frances were bedridden. Bl. Marie Bagnesi, the Dominican tertiary, was for forty-five years prostrated by illness and, according to the Bollandists, had hardly one of her members intact. St. Frica was confined to bed with paralysis for six years; and we are told that she suffered intensely from the rats that attacked her when her mother was out in the town begging for bread.
It is very doubtful if sickness will ever be banished from the world. In spite of the admirable efforts of science, there is still disease and deformity. Very few are quite as well as they would like to be, and some are more unfortunate than others. St. Teresa thought that there ought to be an invalid in every community; and perhaps God will always permit chronic infirmity to fall upon this one or that in order to give His creatures an opportunity of glorifying Him by their patience and resignation. “Sickness,” said one of the saints, “sanctifies quicker than anything else” — yes, if it is rightly understood and accepted in a supernatural spirit. Sometimes it is God’s last resource in His providential plan of saving us, and if it fails, our case is very desperate indeed.
Bad health is not a blessing, by any means. But if ill health comes, in spite of all our care, we can, at least, make a virtue of its necessity, as God’s servants did, one of whom said, “To carry the Cross is to make the Cross carry us.”
image: BasPhoto / Shutterstock.com
Editor’s note: This article was adapted from a chapter in Fr. Aloysius’ A Bedside Book of Saints, available from Sophia Institute Press.
By Fr. Aloysius Roche
Aloysius Roche (b. 1886) was a parish priest in Essex, England, where he was known for his great knowledge of the lives of the saints, his wise sermons and his simple, holy lifestyle.
SUBSCRIBE TO CE
(IT'S FREE)
Saints who Gave Up Sleep
How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
In the United States, the average person gets 6.8 hours of sleep per night. Given that the recommended amount by some government agencies is 7 hours per night, that sounds pretty good. However, that actually means that 35% of Americans do not get enough sleep. And furthermore that sleep-deprivation apparently costs $411 billion.
Well, what does that have to do with the saints?
The answer is that I would like to talk about the saints and sleep.
As you might already know, there are some saints who are well known for their sleep habits. Or shall I say there lack of sleep habits.
Let's countdown the hours of sleep for some saints.
Two Hundred Years of Sleep
In the year 250, the emperor Decius issued an edict that throughout the Roman Empire, everyone, except Jews, was required to burn incense to the Roman gods and for the health of the emperor. The sacrifice was to be made in the presence of a Roman official and a certificate was to be issued upon successful completion or the mandated sacrifice.
Although considered more of an act of loyalty than an attempt to persecute Christians, it put the young Church on notice that laws would be passed that would be in direct contradiction to the Faith.
Seven soldiers from Ephesus had converted to Christianity, and they refused to follow through with the order. There names are Maximian, Marcus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine. As a punishment, the they were put in a cave outside the city. The cave was then sealed in order for them to die by starvation.
After their act of loyalty to the Lord, the seven fell into a deep sleep in the cave. As the legend goes, in fact, they fell into a miraculous sleep that lasted around 200 years.
The story continues around the year 447, when the cave was reopened by a man who wanted to use it for his cattle. The seven awoke and found the cave opened.
Thinking that they were somehow freed after only a night's rest, they went into the city and were amazed at the changes they saw including the acceptance of Christianity. The people of the time wondered at these strange men who were trying to use old coins to buy bread.
At the time, there were controversies regarding false teachings about the resurrection of the body and life after death. The bishop of Ephesus met with the seven who told their story and gave testimony to the true teaching of the Faith on these matters. After that they died, and they were given a proper burial in the cave.
The story spread throughout the middle ages and the site became a place of pilgrimage, and numerous people were buried in the cave.
Want to learn more about the saints?
Learn more about the saints in a five-day, free course delivered to your inbox.
Each day, receive a new email with the day's brief, but informative lesson.
Five Hours of Sleep
Moving from the legendary to the practical, there is the gentle St. Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622), as a matter of course, he only slept five hours per night. He was a disciplined person, and kept this practice for various reasons including keeping up with his vast correspondence as Bishop of Geneva and a spiritual adviser to many.
Apparently, instead of thinking that he would catch up on his sleep over the weekend, he once noted that, "We shall have all eternity in which to rest."
Four or Five Hours of Sleep
The very jovial St. Philip Neri (1515 - 1595) was known to only take about four or five hours of sleep per night. He was a man of modest living. The furniture in his room consisted of a bed, a table, a few chairs, and a clothesline he used to hang up his clothes. And apparently, he often decided to sleep on the floor rather than the bed.
That discipline being considered, he was not reluctant to go to sleep and mentioned that, "When a man really loves God, he comes to such a state in the end that he is obliged to say, 'Lord, let me get some sleep!'"
Three Hours of Sleep
St. John Vianney (1786 - 1859) was a poor student, and he struggled with the necessary course work required for the priesthood. Trusting in the Lord's calling him to become a priest, he persevered and was ordained.
After barely passing the necessary qualifications for the priesthood, St. John Vianney was assigned to the backwater town of Ars, France where it was reasoned that he could not do too much harm and perhaps, he could do some good. After all, although not much of a town, Ars had a reputation as a place of immorality and low adherence to the Faith.
Through prayer, penance, suffering, and administration of the sacraments, he turned the town upside down. The town which used to be known mainly for its bars and cabarets, became a place of pilgrimage for repentant sinners.
Word spread about this holy priest who administered God's mercy in the confessional and was able to read souls to help guide them back to the Lord. In France, at the time, priests were given a list of recommended penances for penitents. The list was quite comprehensive and cumulative. St. John thought that it was too harsh. Many times instead of prescribing the full list of penances which were recommended, he gave the penitent a lighter penance and took on the rest of the recommended penance himself.
As a result, St. John Vianney worked around the clock celebrating mass, hearing confessions, administering the other sacraments, and making penance for sinners. In addition, he was a champion for the poor through his efforts to insure that they did not have to work on Sunday, donating funds to help them, and starting an orphanage for girls. During the last 10 years of his life, he would spend as many as 16 to 18 hours a day in the confessional.
What did this cost him? Well, quite a bit, including sleep. He typically only slept three hours a night. And many times that sleep was disturbed because he experienced demonic attacks at night.
Need help getting your kids excited about the faith?
Let the saints help you. Subscribe to the Saints Letter Club
What is the Saints Letter Club?
Every month your child will receive a snail mail letter with:
😇 An illustrated letter written by the saint telling his or her story
✂ Fun, hands-on activities which build on the letter and teach about our holy faith
🧁 A tasty, easy-to-make, recipe based on the saint or the saint's region of the world
❤️ A simple service project which will help your children live out their faith
✉️ All stuffed into an envelope and sent to your door (Mailed anywhere in the world!)
No Sleep for Twenty Days
Like many of the Desert Fathers, St. Macarius (c.300 - 390) was given to some extreme forms of asceticism. It was said that when he learned that another monk of the desert was practicing some type of mortification, he would attempt to replicate it and maybe even go one better. If someone was living on a pound of bread a day, he would try to live on less than that.
Thus, it was reported that at one point in time, after he learned of others going without sleep, he went twenty days without sleep. These types of practices did not seem to cause too much harm to him as he lived to around 90 years of age.
For Those Who Doze
Certainly, these might seem rather extreme to us, but they should all be judged not by our perspective but by the time in which these saints lived. It could easily be said that many of them lived in times that required much more robust living than we need today. And therefore, they were better suited for living with less sleep.
Also, it should be noted, that there are plenty of other historical figures, who are not saints, that lived on much less sleep than we expect today.
For those of us who struggle with sleep and may even doze off at inopportune times, we have the help of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She freely admitted that she would fall asleep during the morning meditation. In response, she wrote, "But I reflect that little children awake or asleep are equally dear to their parents." Therefore, she felt confident that to her Heavenly Father she was still a dear child although she slept when she was supposed to be praying.
We also can call upon St. Peter, St. John, and St. James to help us to be alert and awake. As they fell asleep rather than kept watch while our Lord prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, they would be keen to intercede for us when we need to awake and watchful.
Want to keep learning about the Faith?
Learn from the experts (the saints) through weekly letters
Start a Catholic Saints Letter Subscription.
Each week, a new letter written by a saint is sent to you via snail mail.
It's a nostalgic and fun way to meet the saints and grow in your faith.
Patron Saint of Sleep
If sleep deprivation does not seem to be your calling, you can consider some other saints for patron saints of sleep or to help with sleep disorders.
I did not find a definite answer to who would be the patron saint of sleep. Many sources cited St. Dymphna who was killed by her father when she resisted his advances. I am not sure how that is related to sleep or sleep disorders, but there does seem to be some precedent for praying to her for help with sleeping.
Then, there is St. Joseph who received divine messages while he slept. I think that he would be a great saint to invoke for getting more sleep and perhaps being more open to what God wants to tell you whether you are awake or asleep.
In more recent years, a devotion to the sleeping St. Joseph has grown. In this devotion, you have a small statue of the sleeping St. Joseph. You write your prayer petition on a piece of paper, fold it up, and place it under the statue as you entrust your prayer to his intercession. And just as he had his questions answered in his sleep, you can trust that the "sleeping" St. Joseph will intercede for you to the Lord. Of course, you do not need a statue, you can simply take your prayers to St. Joseph in order that he might sleep on them for you.
Did you enjoy reading about the sleeping patterns of saints? Sign up to receive a new saint story every week.
You Might Also Like
Want to Learn More About the Habits of the Saints?
In A Bedside Book of Saints, Fr. Aloysius Roche shares the full humanity of the saints through precious ancedotes of their lives. Through the short quotes and recounting of stories, we see how God created each of His saints, and indeed each of us, as unique creatures with different dispositions, likes, and gifts.
Consider this nugget that is from the book and shows the humility and playfulness of St. John Vianney. For many years, there were a great number of people including fellow priests who wanted to see St. John removed as the parish priest of Ars because they considered him a hapless priest. A petition was started in order to request his removal. Accordingly, St. John signed the petition himself and remarked that with his signature added, the efforts for his removal must surely succeed. Nonetheless, despite his agreement with their sentiments that he was wholly inadequate as a priest, he remained the priest of Ars until he passed away.
- All Categories