Agrippinus of Naples

Saint Agrippinus (Arpinus) was bishop of Naples, by tradition the sixth bishop of the city, and is venerated there as a saint. He is commemorated on 9 November. The sources say that he lived toward the end of the third century and does not seem to have been a martyr; one Russian source gives his death as the year 233, which does not agree with the other dates.

Very little is known of his life. The hagiographer Hippolyte Delehaye noted in his commentary on the Roman Martyrology that Agrippinus is without doubt to be counted among the first bishops of the Church of Naples, but that the years of his episcopate are unknown.

At one time Agrippinus enjoyed in Naples a veneration comparable to that of Saint Januarius (Gennaro). The foundation of the church of San Gennaro extra Moenia is linked to the catacombs of Saint Januarius, the largest complex of Christian catacombs in southern Italy. The first structure probably arose from the joining of two ancient burial places: one from the second century, which held the remains of Saint Agrippinus, and one from the fourth century, which held those of Januarius.

In 1744 Cardinal Giuseppe Spinelli, archbishop of Naples, searched for the relics of Agrippinus. He found a marble urn inscribed to say that it held indeterminate relics believed to be the body of Saint Agrippinus. They are kept beneath the high altar of the cathedral of Naples together with the bodies of Saints Eutychius and Acutius, companions of Saint Januarius (the Russian source names the second companion as Proculus). The painter Stefano Pozzi depicted Januarius and Agrippinus driving out the Saracens.