Severin of Cologne

Saint Severin was the third Bishop of Cologne, in the later fourth century. The Church remembers him as a shepherd who opposed Arianism and founded a monastery from which a basilica bearing his name later grew. His feast is kept on 23 October.

According to the sources, in 376 he founded a monastery in what was then Colonia Agrippina, in honour of the martyrs Cornelius and Cyprian, from which the later Basilica of Saint Severin developed. He was a prominent opponent of Arianism. A tradition relates that while still a priest he was walking in a field and heard a voice tell him he would one day be bishop of Cologne. When he asked when, he was told: when his staff buds and flowers. He thrust his staff into the ground at once, it budded, and he was called to Cologne.

Severin was highly venerated in Cologne from early times. His relics are kept in a golden shrine in the choir of the church of Saint Severin. The shrine seen today is a reconstruction of 1819, since the medieval one was melted down for its gold during the period of French rule, around 1795 to 1798. Its opening in 1999 confirmed the recorded transfer of the bones under Bishop Wigfried (924 to 953), as the inner wooden box could be dated by dendrochronology to the year 948. An ancient cloth, probably Byzantine, with which the box was lined was also found. Saint Severin is venerated in the Orthodox Church as well.