Gaudiosus of Abitina

Saint Gaudiosus of Naples, also called Gaudiosus the African, was bishop of Abitina, a village near Carthage in present-⁠day Tunisia, in the Roman province of Africa. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, and his commemoration is on 27 October. The date of his canonization is not known. He died about the year 455.

Born Septimius Celius Gaudiosus, he fled North Africa during the persecution of Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 439, by sea, together with Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage, and other exiled clergy, and arrived at Naples. He settled on the acropolis of Naples, around the hill of Capodimonte, and founded there the first monastery in Italy under the Rule of Saint Augustine, which has not survived.

The introduction of the Augustinian Rule into Naples is attributed to him, as is the introduction of some relics, among them those of Saint Restituta of Carthage, which rest today in the cathedral of Naples. The relics of Gaudiosus were buried in the sixth century in the catacombs of San Gennaro. One of the cemeteries of these catacombs, San Gaudioso, bears his name.