SEVERUS, bishop of RAVENNA, saint. — He is the last of the twelve Ravenna bishops called “columbines” because, according to legend, they were designated for election by a dove that settled on their head. So it is said to have happened to S., a simple weaver, who was present at the assembly gathered to elect the bishop.
The duration of his episcopate is unknown; however, he took part in the Council of Sardica (343), whose canons and synodal letter to Pope Julius he signed (Mansi, III, 39, 42). He died on 1 Feb., and his death anniversary is included in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which also recalls him on 1 Jan. through an error. He was buried in the cemetery of the “Vicus Salutaris,” outside Classe, and over his tomb there arose a shrine called that of St. Ruffillus. His cult became firmly established very early, so much so that Bishops Peter III (578) and John I (578–95) erected for him a grand basilica in the region called Salutaris, later known as the Severiana, which was destroyed in the 15th century. John II transferred the relics of S., of Vincentia and Innocentia—respectively the wife and daughter of S.—and placed them in a sarcophagus at the center of the basilica. Relics of S. were rediscovered in 1871 in the silver chapel (5th cent.) of Grado. In Germany the cult of S. spread after the translation of his relics to Mainz and then to Erfurt by Archbishop Otgar (826–47), who acquired them in Pavia from the Frankish cleric Felix, who had stolen them before 830. The oldest biographical accounts of S. are the notice by Agnellus (c. 830–32) and the Life, followed by the translatio by the priest Liutolf (shortly after 856: ed. L. V. Heinemann, in MGH, Scriptores, XV, I [1887], pp. 289–93). The Archbishop of Mainz Charles (856–63) granted part of the relics of St. Innocentia to the nuns of Altenmünster.
He is the patron of weavers and wool spinners and of police officers. The Roman Martyrology recalls him on 1 Feb.
A. Pietro Frutaz