Overview
- Born in Ravenna around 1007, Peter Damian became a bishop and cardinal, died on February 21, 1072, and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1828.
- He is noted for championing clerical discipline and austere monastic life during 11th‑century church reforms, and he is invoked by headache sufferers and ecclesiastical reformers.
- Robert Southwell, a Jesuit missionary and martyr, is also remembered on this date, having been executed at Tyburn on February 20, 1595 after a treason conviction.
- Other commemorations for February 21 include Eustace of Antioch, Germanus, Maria Enrichetta Dominici, Noël Pinot, Thomas Portmort, Severian of Scythopolis, and Pepin of Landen.
- The santoral sets the calendar of saints’ feast days across the liturgical year, and many people mark their onomástica according to the saint linked to their given name.