Aldo the Hermit

Aldo the Hermit was an Italian monk and hermit who probably lived in the 8th century and is venerated as a saint in the Western Church. Little or nothing is known about him; the name is of Lombard origin, from ald, "old, wise".

It is believed that he led the life of a hermit first around Bobbio, where he probably became a monk, and then in the forest of Carbonara al Ticino near Pavia, where stood the old Columbanian monastery of Santa Maria di Carbonaria. The Columbanian rule allowed both community life and the hermit's life. After his death an oratory bearing his name was built, attested in the 8th century. His body was moved in turn to the church of San Colombano Maggiore in Pavia, then to the cathedral, and finally, it seems in 1573, to the urn in the high altar of the basilica of San Michele Maggiore, beside the urns of the bishops Ennodius and Eleucadius. The parish church of Carbonara al Ticino has a chapel of Saint Aldo, with a statue of the saint in a sleeping pose, placed with relics in an adorned urn. Tradition says he was a charcoal burner.

His name is not in the universal calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, nor in the Roman Martyrology; it is found in the Bollandists in the 17th century and in the Benedictine martyrology. He is commemorated on 10 January.