Elpidius of Aversa

Saint Elpidius of Aversa was a bishop venerated at Aversa in Italy. He is commemorated on 24 May. The sources consulted give no details of his life.

He may be the same as Saint Elpidius of Atella, bishop of Atella from 432 for nearly twenty years, whose repose is also kept on 24 May (452), but our sources do not establish the link. Of the latter it is said that he was born in 388 into a noble family, was consecrated bishop around 420 and, in the persecution of Gaiseric, was condemned to death with eleven other bishops, put on a ship without oars or sails, which was wrecked near the coast of Campania; he built a small church over the remains of Bishop Canius. His body was buried in the cathedral of Atella in 460 and moved in 787 to Salerno, in the crypt of the cathedral of Saint Matthew.