Prosper of Reggio

Saint Prosper was bishop of the city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy in the fifth century and remains its patron. By tradition he shepherded his flock for twenty-⁠two years and died about 466, on 25 June.

His episcopate

Very little is known of his life, but documents show that he was indeed bishop of Reggio in the fifth century. What is remembered above all is his charity and mercy. He built a church in honour of Saint Apollinaris of Ravenna, later named for him as San Prospero, which commemorates his episcopate, though the city's cathedral is not dedicated to him.

Tradition says he turned aside Attila, king of the Huns, by miraculously calling up a fog that hid the city. The same miracle is told of Bishop Geminianus, patron of Modena.

Relics and veneration

In 703 his relics were translated to a new church built in his honour by his successor Thomas, bishop of Reggio, where they lay beside those of the hermit Venerius and of Saints Cosmas and Damian. In the tenth century, with the city exposed to attack from the sea, Bishop Ermenald moved the relics to the cathedral of Santa Maria in the centre while the church dedicated to Prosper was being built. It was finished by his successor Tenzo in 979, and Pope Gregory V consecrated it in 997. In the sixteenth century the church was rebuilt, and the saint's body lies beneath the high altar.

His cult was ancient and spread between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries to Parma, Bologna, Lucca and other cities. About thirty-⁠one churches and chapels were dedicated to him in the Middle Ages. After the Council of Trent the cult was again confined to Reggio. The diocese keeps his feast locally on 24 November, while on general calendars his day is 25 June.