Dorus of Benevento

Holy Hierarch Dorus of Benevento is a bishop of the city of Benevento in southern Italy, from the early centuries of the Church there. The traditional lists of the bishops of Benevento, beginning with that of 1636, name two bishops called Dorus: one, counted a saint, who succeeded Saint Januarius around 320, and another from the middle of the 5th century. Some scholars (Lanzoni, Burchi) think there was only one, duplicated in the chronology, and place him in the 5th century.

The 5th-⁠century bishop is attested by a letter of Pope Leo I of 8 March 448: Dorus was accused of having broken ecclesiastical order by placing the priest Eucarpius, recently ordained, at the head of the local clergy, without regard to seniority and merit. The pope ordered him to restore order in his clergy, under the supervision of Iulius, probably bishop of Pozzuoli.

The chronicler Falco relates that on 15 May 1119 Archbishop Landolf found the relics of several saints, among them those of Dorus, whose memory was entered in the calendar of Benevento on 20 November. The Roman Martyrology also commemorates him on 20 November, by the Western calendar (new style). He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.