Bellino, Saint

BELLINO, saint. - A native of Padua, of the Bertaldo family. Already a priest in 1107, he became a canon and then archpriest of the Cathedral; exiled to Este with Bishop Sinibaldo (1110), he was able to return to Padua in 1115. He took part with his bishop in the Lateran Council of 1123; around 1125 or 1126 he was elected bishop of Padua. He held the episcopal see for more than twenty years: he was a strenuous defender of ecclesiastical rights and immunities and very beneficent toward his subjects. While travelling on pastoral business to Fratta Polesine of Rovigo (diocese of Adria), he was killed by a certain Tommaso Capivacca (26 Nov. 1147). Buried in the church of S. Giacomo at Fratta, he immediately received the cult of a martyr. The reports concerning a possible canonization by Eugenio III in 1151 or by Eugenio IV in 1447 are not supported by reliable documents; in the diocese of Adria he is venerated as the principal patron of the diocese. His feast is observed on 26 Nov.