Severus of Naples

Saint Severus of Naples was bishop of Naples from February 363 until his repose on 29 April 409. He is counted as the eleventh legitimate bishop of the city after Maximus, an Arian named Zosimus, condemned as a heretic, having been set in the see in between.

He was a friend of Saint Ambrose, whom he met at the council of Capua in 392. He is credited with building the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte beside the basilica of Santa Restituta, and the basilica of San Fortunato outside the walls, to which he moved the relics of his predecessor Maximus. He is also credited with the first translation of the body of Saint Januarius from Pozzuoli to Naples, in 367.

His relics were moved in the ninth century from the baptistery to the Sanità district, in what is now called the Catacombs of San Severo. In 1310 Archbishop Uberto d'Ormont placed them in the high altar of the church of San Severo, under a marble canopy. The Marble Calendar of Naples, carved in the ninth century, lists his memory on 29 April.

A legendary Life written in the eleventh century tells that Severus raised a dead man to bear witness for his widow. The man had owed a bath-⁠keeper an egg, but after his death the bath-⁠keeper demanded a large sum from the woman, and a judge sentenced her to be sold into slavery with her children. Severus went to the tomb, the dead man opened his eyes and said he owed only one egg, then fell back again. The crowd turned on the bath-⁠keeper, but the saint protected him.