Careful readers of the New Yorker some months ago would have noticed a reference to Santa Bibiana, who is known as the patron saint of hangovers. Anyone who remembers what a hangover feels like has no reason to doubt the condition needs a patron. An “insider guide” to Rome on the web assured me that St. Bibiana’s Church at 154 Via Giovanni Giolitti was open every day all day. Tom and I had walked past it often on our last trip to Rome and never remembered seeing it open. Both the façade and a statue of the saint over the high altar were made by a 27 year old Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
I did find a reliquary which held (well, held once; I can’t tell now) Santa Bibiana’s relics in the treasury under Santa Maria Maggiore.
