Petronius () (died ca. 450 AD) was
bishop of Bologna
The Archdiocese of Bologna (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Italy. The cathedra is in the cathedral church of San Pietro, Bologna. The current archbishop is Cardinal Matteo Zu ...
during the fifth century. He is a
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...
of the city. Born of a noble
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
family, he became a convert to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
and subsequently a
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
. As bishop of Bologna, he built the Church of
Santo Stefano.
Life
The only sources on Petronius are a letter written by Bishop
Eucherius of Lyon
Eucherius (c. 380c. 449) was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian church in Roman Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. From 439, he served as Archbishop of Lyon, and Henry Wace ranked h ...
(died 450–455) to Valerianus, and
Gennadius' .
[Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Petronius." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 18 November 2021 Eucherius describes Petronius as renowned in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
for his virtues. Gennadius writes that Petronius belonged to a noble family whose members occupied high positions at the imperial Court at
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
and in the provincial administrations at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries.
[
His father (also named Petronius) was probably , since a Petronius filled this office in ]Gaul
Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...
in 402–408. The treatise , bearing the name of Petronius as author, is by the elder . Eucherius seems to suggest that the future bishop also held an important secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
position.[
Even in his youth Petronius devoted himself to the practices of ]asceticism
Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing Spirituality, spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world ...
, and seems to have visited Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, perhaps on a pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
.[Butler. "Saint Petronius, Bishop of Bologna, Confessor". ''Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints'']
1866. CatholicSaints.Info. 13 August 2018
About 432 he was elected and consecrated Bishop of Bologna, where he erected a church to Saint Stephen
Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity.["St ...]
(Santo Stefano), the building scheme of which was in imitation of the shrines on Golgotha
Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified.
Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...
and over the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Some ...
in Jerusalem. He also built the church of Santa Lucia, and the original church of Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano
Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano is a Renaissance style, Roman Catholic church in central Bologna; it is located near the Two Towers, adjacent to the Strada Maggiore.
History
A church at the site dedicated to St Bartholemew had existed since the 5th ...
.[
Some sources attribute a work on the life of the Egyptian monks () to Petronius; the Catholic Encyclopedia disagrees, attributing it to ]Rufinus of Aquileia
Tyrannius Rufinus, also called Rufinus of Aquileia (; 344/345–411), was an early Christian monk, philosopher, historian, and theologian who worked to translate Greek patristic material, especially the work of Origen, into Latin.
Life
Rufinus ...
. Germain Morin
Germain Morin (1861–1946) was a Franco-Belgian Benedictine historical scholar, patrologist, and liturgiologist, of the Beuronese Congregation.
Life
Born at Caen in Normandy, he entered the Abbey of St. Benedict at Maredsous, Belgium, in 1882 a ...
published a sermon entitled "" (Revue bénédictine, 1897, 3 sq.), which Gennadius ascribes to Bishop , whom Bruno Czalpa holds to be Petronius of Bologna.
According to Gennadius, Petronius died during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II
Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...
and Valentinian III
Valentinian III (; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the Western Roman Empire, West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful general ...
, i. e., before 450.
Veneration
In the twelfth century appeared a legendary life of Petronius, whose relics
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
were discovered in 1141. Shortly afterwards a church was erected in his honour at Bologna; a second, San Petronio Basilica
The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Petronius of Bo ...
, planned on a large seal, was begun in 1390. In 2000, his relics were moved from Santo Stefano to the Basilica of San Petronio.
The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Saint Petronius on 4 October. In iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
, Petronius is depicted as a bishop holding a model
A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , .
Models can be divided in ...
of Bologna in his hand.
Image:Autori vari, arca di san domenico, protettori di bologna, 02 petronio di michelangelo, 1494, 2.jpg, Basilica of San Domenico, in Bologna, contains a statue of St Petronius by Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...
Image:Bologna-statua di san petronio a natale.jpg, Statue of St Petronius in Piazza di Porta Ravegnana
The Piazza di Porta Ravegnana (originally Porta Ravennate) is a city square in the central of Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The Piazza, located some four blocks east of the Piazza Maggiore and Cathedral of Bologna, is the site of the T ...
Image:Bologna italy basilica di San Petronio.jpg, San Petronio Basilica
image:Francesco del Cossa San Petronio particolare.JPG, Francesco del Cossa, St Petronius (detail) ''Pala dei Mercanti''
References
Sources
*Ferguson, George (1961). ''Signs and Symbols in Christian Art'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 139.
*
*Filippini, F. (1948). ''S. Petronio vescovo di Bologna. Storia e leggenda''. Bologna 1948.
*Lanzoni, Francesco (1832). ed. G. Cantagalli. ''Cronotassi dei vescovi di Bologna dai primordi alla fine del secolo XIII''. Bologna 1932, pp. 30–33.
*Mathisen, Ralph W. (1981), "Petronius, Hilarius and Valerianus: Prosopographical Notes on the Conversion of the Roman Aristocracy," ''Historia. Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'' Band 30 (1981), pp. 106–112.
*Paolini, Lorenzo (2015)
"Petronio, santo".
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' Volume 82 (2015)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petronius, Saint
450 deaths
Converts to Christianity from ancient Roman religions
Italian saints
Bishops of Bologna
5th-century Italian bishops
5th-century Christian saints
Petronii
Year of birth unknown