**ABBONDIO, Saint. - Fourth bishop of Como,**
patron of the diocese. He is particularly known for the mission he carried out in Constantinople in 450, as legate of Leo the Great to Emperor Marcian, following the death of Theodosius II, and to Patriarch Anatolius. A., together with Eutychius (Asterius, according to the editors' discretion), bishop of Capua, and the priests Basil of Naples and Senator of Milan, was to address the profession of the Catholic faith of the Constantinopolitan patriarch Anatolius, who had previously been an apocrisiary of the Alexandrian patriarch Dioscorus, successor to the deposed Flavian. In the event of Anatolius' obstinacy, they were also to arrange for the convocation of a general council to be held in Italy (cf. Leo's letters to Theodosius II and Pulcheria of 16 July 450, in Jaffé-Wattenbach, 452-53). The mission of A. and his companions was successful: Anatolius convened a synod on 21 October of the same year, held in the baptistery of Hagia Sophia, which all the bishops of the patriarchate were required to attend. There, he anathematized the doctrines of Nestorius and Eutyches and subscribed to Leo's Tome to Flavian.
Upon their return to Italy, A. and Senator brought to Milan a letter in which Leo probably asked the bishops to affirm their faith regarding the doctrines of Nestorius and Eutyches. The letter was read and subscribed by the suffragans of Milan, gathered in synod by Archbishop Eusebius (first half of 451); A. also subscribed on behalf of the bishop of Chur. He died on 2 April in a year that ranges between 462 and 489; the Bollandists consider it to be 468. He was buried in the basilica of the Apostles Peter and Paul, later named after him, where a fragment of the sepulchral slab with the inscription is still preserved (CIL, V, II, no. 5402). On 8 January 1587, Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio had the body of A. transferred to the cathedral. His feast is celebrated on 2 April.
The *Vita Abundi*, published by Mombritius (Sanctuarium, Milan 1478) and reproduced by the Bollandists, is late (7th-10th or 13th century?) and contains scant and not always reliable biographical data; however, the author was acquainted with the acts of the Constantinopolitan synod of 450, in which A. participated. Of this synod, hitherto known only from the *Vita Abundi*, P. Mouterde discovered and published an important fragment of its acts in a Syriac manuscript from the Vatican Library (Fragments d'actes d'un synode tenu à Constantinople en 450, in Mélanges de l'Université de Saint-Joseph, Beirut 1930, pp. 35-50).
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Lanzoni, pp. 978-79; F. Savio, *Antichi vescovi d'Italia. La Lombardia*, part II, vol. I, Bergamo 1929, pp. 218-85; R. Maiocchi, *Storia dei vescovi di Como*, Milan 1929, pp. 42-67; P. Mouterde, *Saint Abundius de Côme et ses trois compagnons à un synode de Constantinopole en 450*, in *Analecta Bollandiana*, 48 (1930), pp. 124-29; C. Silva-Tarouca, *Nuovi studi sulle antiche lettere dei Papi*, Rome 1932, pp. 111-17, 141 (extract from *Gregorianum*, 12, [1932], pp. 403-409, 553). A. Pietro Frutaz
*S. ABBONDIO - Altar of the saint (16th cent.) - Como, Cathedral.*
(photo *Alinari*)
S. ABBONDIO - Façade of the basilica of the saint (11th cent.) - Como.