BASSIANO (BASSANO), SANTO

BASSIANUS (BASSANO), St. — He is the first historically documented bishop of Lodi (c. 374–c. 409). As such, he took part in the Council of Aquileia in 381 and in the provincial synod of Milan in 389, which condemned the heretic Jovinian. He opposed Arianism. From a letter of St. Ambrose to St. Felix, bishop of Como, it may be inferred that both went to Lodi in 380 to consecrate the church that B. had built in honor of the Apostles (cf. PL 16, 889). In 397 he was present in Milan at the death of his friend St. Ambrose. B. died on 19 January, probably in 409, and was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles. When the city of Lodi was destroyed by the Milanese and rebuilt by Barbarossa (Lodi Nuova), his remains were solemnly transferred from the old to the new cathedral by the antipope Victor IV on 4 November 1163. He is venerated as the patron of the diocese.