Saint Ansovinus ( it, Sant'Ansovino) (d. 816) was a

bishop of Camerino The Italian Archdiocese of Camerino-San Severino Marche ( la, Archidioecesis Camerinensis-Sancti Severini in Piceno) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory, seated in Camerino, a city in the Province of Macerata, in the central Italian March ...

, and is the patron saint of agriculture. His feast day is March 13.

Life

He was educated at the cathedral school of Pavia. After ordination to the priesthood, he became a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite ( adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a C ...

at Castel Raimondo near

Torcello Torcello ( la, Torcellum; vec, Torceło) is a sparsely populated island at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy. It was first settled in 452 CE and has been referred to as the parent island from which Venice was p ...

.Butler, Alban. "St. Ansovinus, bishop", ''Butler's Lives of the Saints: November'', Liturgical Press, 1995
, p. 143 Before being elected bishop of Camerino, he served as confessor to

Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor Louis II (825 – 12 August 875), sometimes called the Younger, was the king of Italy and emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone. Louis's usual title was ''impera ...

. Ansovinus refused to accept the office of bishop until Louis was agreed that his see be kept exempt from the conscription of the locals into the soldiery. During this time, bishops were often required to be responsible for recruiting men for the imperial army.Boccanera, Giacomo. "Sant' Ansovino di Camerino", Santi e Beati, February 1, 2001
/ref> He was consecrated at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Pope Leo IV Pope Leo IV (790 – 17 July 855) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 10 April 847 to his death. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches that had been damaged during the Arab raid against Rome, and for building the Le ...

, and returned to this city for the

Council of Rome The Council of Rome was a meeting of Catholic Church officials and theologians which took place in AD 382 under the authority of Pope Damasus I, the then-Bishop of Rome. According to the (a work written by an anonymous scholar between AD 519 and ...

held by

Pope Nicholas I Pope Nicholas I ( la, Nicolaus I; c. 800 – 13 November 867), called Nicholas the Great, was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority, exerting dec ...

in 861, where records show he signed as ''Ansuinus Camerinensis''. His episcopate was characterized by his generosity to the poor and his pacification of the city's various factions. Carlo Crivelli - St Jerome and St Augustine (detail) - WGA5794

Carlo Crivelli - St Jerome and St Augustine (detail) - WGA5794

The gift of multiplying food was attributed to Ansovinus. He fed thousands of starving people from the regional granary at Castel Raimondo, but the grain never ran out.Realy, Margaret Rose. "The Pope's Prayer for Small Farmers", ''Aleteia'', April 3, 2016
/ref>

Veneration

His feast day is March 13. The cathedral at Camerino includes the marble medieval

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

of Sant'Ansovino. A monumental

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Gre ...

erected around 1390 holds his

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...

. His festival was once celebrated by Camerino and the nobles of other castles in the region. The church of Santi Venanzio e Ansovino at Rome was dedicated to him.Melchiorri, Giuseppe. ''Guida metodica di Roma e suoi contorni''
Rome (1836); page 425. Additionally, there are rural churches dedicated to him at Avacelli, Casenove,

Bevagna Bevagna is a town and ''comune'' in the central part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria), in the flood plain of the Topino river. Bevagna is south-east of Perugia, west of Foligno, north-north-west of Montefalco, south of Assisi a ...

, and Monsammartino. Ansovinus is the patron saint of small farmers.

Notes

External links

Saints of March 13: Ansovinus of Camerino
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansovinus Bishops in le Marche People from the Province of Macerata 9th-century Italian bishops 840 deaths Italian hermits 9th-century Christian saints Medieval Italian saints Year of birth unknown