SEVERO, bishop of NAPOLI, saint. - The twelfth bishop of Napoli, whose episcopate appears to be dated between February 363 and 24 April 409.
S. Ambrogio addressed a letter to him in April 393 (Ep., 59 [85]: PL 16, 1232-33), and a letter of the prefect Simmaco appears to allude to S. (Ep. lib., VII, 51: ed. O. Seeck, in MGH, Auct. antiquis., VI, 1 [1883], p. 191). The Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum (ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Scriptores rerum Langobard. et Ital. [1878], pp. 404-405) attribute to S. the foundation of 4 churches and of the monastery later called that of SS. Martino and Potito martire. S. was buried in a crypt of the cemetery called that of S. S., whence he was later transferred to the Basilica Severiana, or that of S. Giorgio Maggiore, erected by him and adorned with splendid mosaics. He is commemorated on 29 April in the Calendario marmoreo and on the 30th in the Martirologio romano. As for his Vita (BHL 7676), it is merely a crude amalgam of hagiographical compositions not concerning S., together with the brief notice from the Gesta. The booklet of the Miracula of s. S. (ibid. 7677) was written ca. 1046.