SPES, bishop of SPOLETO. - Born toward the end of the 4th century, he governed the Church of Spoleto for 32 years, from about 420 to 452.
Of his life and activity there remains only a metrical inscription composed by him in honour of the martyr Vitale, whom he had discovered and to whom he dedicated an altar in the church of Terzo della Pieve. S. calls himself Dei servus. He was buried in the cemetery church of the SS. Apostoli, where his epitaph was found. In the 8th century, apparently, his body was transferred to Aquisgrana. In the new Proprium of the diocese of Spoleto, the feast of S. falls on 4 December.
BIBL.: G. B. de Rossi, L'elogio metrico ai s. Vitale martire fatto da S. vescovo di Spoleto, in Bull. di arch. crist., 2ª serie, 2 (1871), pp. 94-116; id., Pergamena epigrafica entro un reliquiario dei tempi di Carlo Magno in Aquisgrana, ibid., 1878, pp. 153-58; Lanzoni, pp. 437 ff., 444; C. Pietrangeli, Spoletrum, Roma 1939, pp. 79-80. Agostino Amore