Proculus of Verona

Saint Proculus was a bishop of Verona in Italy, who survived the persecution of Diocletian and died in peace at Verona, about 320. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, and his commemoration is on 9 December. Our sources mention no Orthodox veneration.

During the persecution of Diocletian, Proculus, bishop of Verona, went to the prison to encourage Firmus and Rusticus. He was bound and brought with them before the consul Anulinus. But since he was elderly, Anulinus did not consider him worth his attention and let him go free, after having him beaten and banished from the city. He lived and survived the persecutions. He is said afterwards to have visited Jerusalem, to have been taken prisoner on his return and sold as a slave, but to have regained his freedom and returned to Verona.

His relics lie in the chapel of San Procolo, attached to the church of San Zeno Maggiore, erected in the sixth or seventh century on the site of a Christian necropolis on the Via Gallica. Its first mention is, however, only in 845. His relics were found in 1492, during renovation work on the church. In San Zaccaria in Venice there is a life-⁠size wooden statue of the saint (1451). His head is venerated at Bergamo. In 1704 Sebastiano Ricci painted in Venice a canvas of Saint Proculus for Bergamo Cathedral.