Today is the feast of St. Bartholomew, who I’ve come to get to know this past year. St. Bartholomew is the patron of bookbinders; butchers; cobblers; Forentine cheese merchants; Forentine salt merchants; leather workers; nervous diseases; neurological diseases; plasterers; shoemakers; tanners; trappers; twitching; whiteners; and Gambatesa, Italy; Armenia.
I also have adopted him as the unofficial patron saint of Restless Legs Syndrome, which is a neurologic disease that I have. RLS is characterized by uncontrollable twitching and jerking of the legs (typically, although it can affect the arms and trunk). People with RLS also have problems when they lay down at night to sleep, or sit for a long amount of time. For me, I have problems at night and sitting for a long amount of time: my legs just HAVE to move. Moving them is the only way they feel better.
Another characteristic of RLS is that people may complain that it feels like there are bugs in their skin but psychologically, they know that there isn’t. There’s a syndrome close to RLS that is psycholgoical in that sufferers think that there ARE bugs in the legs and will scratch their legs until they bleed in some cases. While reading about St. Bartholomew, it is noted that St. Bartholomew was martyred and had his flesh torn from his body – while alive. Doesn’t sound very pleasant.
At any rate, I think St. Bartholomew could be the unofficial patron of RLS. Either way, he gets us since RLS is neurologic and part of his patronage is neurological diseases.
St. Bartholomew, pray for us!
