Metro of Verona

Saint Metro of Verona is a legendary saint, venerated only at Verona and in the convent of Gernrode. The legend shows him as a saint of penance for grave sins.

The Life says that Metro chained himself to a stone before the church of San Vitale in Verona, to atone for the sin of incest, and threw the key into the river Adige. After seven years the key was found in the belly of a fish, and his sins were forgiven. The motif of incest, fish and recovered key is also found in the poem Gregorius by Hartmann von Aue; the legend of Metro may be a source for it.

His relics were stolen at Verona in 961 and taken by Margrave Gero to Gernrode, where Metro became a patron of the convent church alongside the Mother of God, Saint Peter and Saint Cyriacus. During the Reformation the relics were removed from the church. A breviary printed at Halberstadt in 1487 preserves his complete office.