Vicinius of Sarsina

Saint Vicinius of Sarsina was, according to tradition, the first bishop of the city of Sarsina in Emilia-⁠Romagna, Italy, and died in 330, on 28 August. Our sources call him a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and show no Orthodox canonization; he stands in our archive as a saint from before the separation of the Churches, with no other basis than local tradition and this veneration.

Life

What we know of him comes from an anonymous manuscript, a lectionary of the twelfth century. According to tradition he was a native of Liguria. Shortly before the great persecutions of Diocletian and Maximinus, he withdrew as a hermit to a mountain about six kilometres from Sarsina, which today bears his name, Monte San Vicinio, in the present commune of Mercato Saraceno. There he led a life of prayer and penance. When the priests and people of Sarsina assembled to choose a bishop, a divine sign appeared above the summit of the mountain, and so the solitary Vicinius was appointed bishop, from the beginning of the fourth century (about 303) to his death in 330. Even after his election he withdrew from time to time to the mountains in solitude.

The iron collar

He is said to have worked miracles, above all expelling demons and healing the faithful of illnesses of body and mind, by means of an iron collar weighted with a stone, which he wore round his neck as a penance. It is a collar made of two arms joined by a double clasp and ending in two interlocking rings. A scientific study by the University of Bologna showed that the object, of uncertain origin, is from the time of the saint's life or slightly earlier. Today the collar is used for blessings; it is said to be the hand of the saint, who by his powerful intercession before God gives grace to those who come on pilgrimage to his altar. Prayers of exorcism are carried out in the basilica of San Vicinio, the former cathedral of Sarsina, by priests authorised by the bishop.

Veneration

In the cathedral of Sarsina is the chapel of Saint Vicinius, where his relics and the miraculous collar are kept, which still draws pilgrims seeking help in sickness and possession. His feast is 28 August. In the valley of the river Savio a pilgrim route, the Way of Saint Vicinius, has been created, in fourteen stages between Romagna and Tuscany, through fourteen communities of the provinces of Forlì-⁠Cesena, Arezzo and Rimini, which passes through the mountain where the saint struggled and through the cathedral of Sarsina.