Serrà of Oviedo

Serrà of Oviedo (Serranus or Seranus) was bishop of Oviedo, in the kingdom of Asturias, at least between 852 and 858. He is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Medieval historians, without basis, thought him to be of the Sierra family. His name appears in charters showing that he succeeded Bishop Gomel. In one, from 852, King Ordoño I of Asturias receives a gift from the bishops Severinus and Ariulf, the monastery of Santa María de Hiermo. Then there are records of several gifts of King Ordoño I and Queen Munia, among them, in 858, San Miguel de Lillo on Mount Naranco, and half of the toll on goods entering the city. Nothing else is known, and until Bishop Hermenegild, in 881, the sources are missing and it cannot be said when he died.

In the Holy Chamber of the cathedral of Oviedo a chest is kept with the inscription Sanctus Serranus. For a long time it was thought to hold his relics and that for this reason he was counted a saint. More probably, though, they are those of Saint Asturius of Toledo, called Asturi Serrà, brought to Oviedo in 717. The martyrology remembers him on 29 January.

His veneration as a saint is therefore uncertain. He is a saint of the West, of the undivided Church, with no known Orthodox synodal canonization.