Syrus of Pavia

Saint Syrus is held, according to tradition, to be the first bishop of Pavia in Italy, in the fourth century. He is the patron of the city. The Church remembers him on 9 December. Of his life mostly legends survive.

A legend in a fourteenth-⁠century work, De laudibus Papiae, says that Syrus was the boy with the five loaves in the Gospels, who gave Jesus the loaves and fish before their multiplication. Historians note that old patrons of churches were linked with persons in the Gospels, to place them near the Savior. It is also said that he followed the Apostle Peter to Rome and from there was sent into the Po valley to preach and convert the people. He preached in all the major cities of northern Italy. Another tradition, from the eighth century, makes him a disciple of Hermagoras, who was a disciple of Mark the Evangelist and founder of the diocese of Aquileia. Together with Juventius he was sent by Hermagoras into the Po valley. In this version Syrus was the first and Juventius the third bishop of Pavia. He fought Arianism in his diocese.

He is buried in the cathedral of Pavia. Bramante designed the chapel of Saint Syrus in the city's cathedral, where his relics are kept.