PETRONIUS, Saint. - The information concerning him is uncertain and obscure. In the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on October 4.

PETRONIUS, saint - St. P. Detail of the Madonna enthroned between St. P. and St. John the Evangelist by Fr. del Cossa (1474) - Bologna, Pinacoteca.(phot. Alinari)

From the few mentions Gennadius makes of him it is gathered that he was bishop of Bologna, that he would have written a series of Vitae Patrum, and that he would have died before 450. A biography of P. was written toward the end of the 12th century, based on oral traditions and stuffed with fables. According to it, P. was born in Constantinople to an illustrious family descended from Constantine the Great; as a youth he studied in his homeland, making great progress in knowledge and in piety; he enrolled among the clergy and from his brother-in-law, the emperor Theodosius II, received several offices at court. Sent to Rome to report to Pope Celestine concerning certain heretics, he was elected bishop of Bologna. Here he labored to build churches reproducing the holy places of Jerusalem, and after death he was buried in the church of St. Stephen which he had built.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Gennadius, De viris illustribus, 41; Acta SS. Octobris. II, Paris 1868, pp. 422-70; F. Lanzoni, S. P., Rome 1907; Martyr. Romanum, p. 434.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec9_petronio_santo, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Petronio, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1303}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/petronio-santo} }

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Petronius, Saint

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