Adiutor of Benevento

Saint Adiutor was bishop of Benevento in Italy in the fifth century, coming according to tradition from Africa. He is commemorated on 15 May and on 1 September and is the patron of the city of Cava de' Tirreni.

According to tradition he was born in Africa. As a soldier in the army of Genseric, he took part in the persecution of Christians in Spain. Then he found the faith, became a bishop and suffered much from the Vandals.

Further news of him is found in the life of Saint Castrensis. According to the Passio, the legendary Genseric, king of the Vandals, tried to force some African bishops to renounce their faith. When he was convinced that his efforts were in vain, he ordered Adiutor and twelve other bishops to be put in an old ship and left to the mercy of the waves. The ship miraculously arrived on the coast of Campania, where Adiutor ended his days, as bishop first at Benevento and then at Marcina, a territory that stretched from Cetara to present-⁠day Cava de' Tirreni.

The story is a late and legendary tradition and not sure history. He lived before the separation of the Churches, and so he is venerated as a saint of the undivided Church.