Severinus of Noricum

Infobox Saint
name=Severinus of Noricum
birth_date=ca. 410cite web | last = Jones | first = Terry | title = Severinus of Noricum | work = Patron Saints Index | url=http://www.catholic-forum.com/saintS/saints54.htm | accessdate = 2007-03-04]
death_date=death date|482|1|8|df=y
feast_day=8 January
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


imagesize=164px
caption=Saint Severinus, Apostle to Noricum
birth_place=Southern Italy or Africa
death_place=Favianae, Noricum
titles=Apostle to Noricum
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=
patronage=Noricum (modern Austria); San Severo, Italy
major_shrine=Abbey of San Severino, Naples, Italy
suppressed_date=
issues=

Severinus of Noricum (ca. 410-482) is a Roman Catholic saint, known as the "Apostle to Noricum". It has been speculated that he was born in either Southern Italy or in the Roman province of Africa, after the death of Attila in 453. Severinus himself refused to discuss his personal history before his appearance along the Danube in Noricum. However, he did mention experiences with eastern desert monasticism, and his "vita" draws connections between Severinus and St. Anthony of Egypt.

Saint Severinus of Noricum is not to be confused with Severinus of Septempeda, the brother of Saint Victorinus of Camerino, and a bishop of Naples, whose feast day is celebrated on the same day, January 8.

Life

The mysterious high-born Severinus is first recorded as travelling along the Danube in Noricum and Bavaria, preaching Christianity, procuring supplies for the starving, redeeming captives and establishing monasteries at Passau and Favianae, and hospices in the chaotic territories that were ravaged by the Great Migrations, sleeping on sackcloth and fasting severely. His efforts seem to have won him wide respect, including that of the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. Eugippius credits him with the prediction that Odoacer would become king of Rome. However, he would rule not more than fourteen years.

Severinus also supposedly prophesied the destruction of Astura, Austria by the Huns under Attila. He established refugee centers for people displaced by the invasion, and founded monasteries to re-establish spirituality and preserve learning in the stricken region.

He died at Favianae, Noricum singing Psalm 150. Six years after his death, his monks were driven from their abbey, and his body was taken to Italy, where it was at first kept in the Castel dell'Ovo, Naples, then eventually interred at the Benedictine monastery rededicated to him, the Abbey of San Severino near Naples.

Severinus was the childhood guardian and spiritual father of St. Anthony the Hermit.

Accounts of his life

Paul the Deacon, in his 8th-century "History of the Lombards,"' mentions the monastery founded by Severinus at Eiferingen, at the foot of the Kahlenberg, not far from Vienna:

The "Vita" of Severinus was written by Eugippius. Beyond Eugippius' work, the only other contemporary source that mentions Saint Severinus is the "Vita beati Antonii" by Magnus Felix Ennodius, bishop of Pavia.

In the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", Edward Gibbon notes that the disciples of Saint Severinus were invited by a "Neapolitan lady" to bring his body to the villa in 488, "in the place of Augustulus, who was probably no more." The villa was converted into a monastery before 500 to hold the saint's remains.

Notes

References

*Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. "The Penguin Dictionary of Saints". 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-14-051312-4.
* Brown, P. (1971), "The World of Late Antiquity" (New York: W. W. Norton & Co).
* "Eugippius und Severin: Der Author, der Text und der Heilige" (Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften).
* Ward-Perkins, B. (2005), "The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization" (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

External links

*en icon [http://www.ccel.org/p/pearse/morefathers/severinus_01_intro.htm Eugippius, "The Life of St Severinus"]
*ru icon [http://www.epilepsiemuseum.de/alt/severinru.html Святой Северин]