Liberalis of Treviso

Saint Liberalis of Treviso was, according to tradition, a priest and hermit of the fourth century who opposed Arianism and was persecuted at Ancona. The Church commemorates him on 27 April. He should not be confused with another Saint Liberalis, bishop of Embrun from 920 to 940.

A legend composed around the tenth century, which mixed in features from the lives of other saints, says that he was born at Altinum into a noble equestrian family. He was brought up in the faith by Heliodorus of Altino, the city's first Christian bishop. After his conversion he lived in great self-⁠denial and fasting.

When opposition from Arians and pagans grew in the diocese, Heliodorus withdrew from the see and lived as a hermit on a desert island in the lagoons near Altino, leaving the see to a man named Ambrose. Liberalis feared that Ambrose would not be able to cope with Arianism and set out to find Heliodorus and urge him to return. On the way he fell asleep in a church and dreamed of an angel in shining white who encouraged him in his mission and told him he would die soon. He went on to Castrazzone, where there was a church of Saint Lawrence. He could not find a way to reach Heliodorus' island and resolved to live as a hermit. But he fell ill and died on 27 April. He was buried in the church at Castrazzone in a marble tomb.

His relics were carried from Altinum to Treviso around 452, to keep them from the invasion of the Huns, or perhaps later, when the threat came from the Lombards. They may have been enshrined, after 639, with those of the martyrs Theonistus, Tabra and Tabratha in the cathedral of Torcello. Yet the presence of the relics of these martyrs at Treviso is also attested, and a strong veneration took root there, documented from 1082 onwards. In the twelfth century Liberalis was proclaimed patron of the city of Treviso and of the cathedral, together with Saints Peter and Paul. He became patron of Castelfranco Veneto because citizens of Treviso founded the town in 1199.

In art he is shown either in a dalmatic or in a soldier's cloak. His relics are kept in a reliquary in Treviso Cathedral.