Saint Severus of Naples

Saint Severus (Italian: San Severo di Napoli) (died 409) was a bishop of Naples during the 4th and 5th centuries. He is considered the eleventh legitimate Catholic bishop of Naples, and the twelfth overall, succeeding Maximus. His episcopate ran from February 363 to April 29, 409, the traditional date of his death. Between the episcopates of Maximus and Severus, Zosimus, an Arian was established as Bishop, who was condemned as heretical by the Catholic Church. Severus was a friend of Saint Ambrose, whom he met at council at Capua in 392. To Severus is attributed the construction of the Battistero di San Giovanni in Fonte, associated with the basilica of Santa Restituta. Severus also built outside of the city walls the Basilica of San Fortunato, to which he translated the relics of his predecessor Maximus. To Severus is also attributed the first translation of the body of St. Januarius from Pozzuoli to Naples, which occurred in 367. According to an early hagiography, Januarius' relics were transferred by order of Severus to the Neapolitan catacombs extra moenia. His relics were translated from the Battistero di Napoli to the district known as Rione Sanità in the 9th century, to what became known as the Catacombs of San Severo. In 1310, Archbishop Umberto d’Ormont (Uberto d'Ormont), who had served as abbot of the Basilica of San Severo, placed Severus' relics in the main altar of San Severo, and had built a marble ciborium, which has been attributed to Tino da Camaino. The Marble Calendar of Naples, sculpted in the ninth century and preserved in the Cathedral of Naples, lists Severus under the feast day of April 29 –the date that appears in the Roman Martyrology. A legendary Vita, written in the eleventh century, states that Severus brought a dead man back to life after the man's widow and children had been left destitute.