Severus of Barcelona

Holy Hierarch Severus of Barcelona is venerated as bishop of Barcelona in Spain who died a martyr. The sources do not agree on his time. The Orthodox calendar places him in 633 and says he was put to death by the Arian Visigoths, who drove nails into his temples. Catalan tradition places him in the persecution of Diocletian, in 304. He is a saint of the undivided Church.

The only historically attested Severus of Barcelona was Severus II, of the 7th century, represented by a priest at the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633 and dead soon afterwards; he is not known to have suffered a violent death. The Severus of the 3rd and 4th centuries is a traditional or legendary figure, one of the lesser patron saints of Barcelona Cathedral, whose day was long a festivity in Catalonia. The legend says he was chosen bishop around 290; in the persecution of Diocletian he fled toward Castrum Octavianum (Sant Cugat del Vallès), and on the way a Christian named Emeterius, sowing broad beans, was after a miracle to tell the soldiers he had seen him pass while sowing; angered, the soldiers arrested Emeterius, and Severus was beheaded with four priests, as was Emeterius.

He is commemorated on 6 November, the liturgical date in the Orthodox calendar (the same day number on the old and new calendars).