| Saint Severus of Ravenna | |
| Birth Place: | Ravenna, Roman Empire |
| Death Date: | circa 348 |
| Feast Day: | 1 February |
| Venerated In: | Catholic Church Western Orthodoxy |
| Titles: | Bishop of Ravenna |
| Canonized Date: | Pre-Congregation |
| Attributes: | Loom, weaver's tools, dove |
| Patronage: | Hatters, wool weavers,[1] spinners, policemen, cloth, stocking, and glove makers. |
| Major Shrine: | Pavio/Pavia (original) Erfurt, Germany |
Saint Severus of Ravenna was a 4th-century Bishop of Ravenna who attended the Council of Sardica in 343. He was ordained as a bishop due to his personal virtue and because of "the sign of a dove". He is commemorated on February 1.
According to legend, Severus, a wool weaver, went with his wife, Vincentia, to observe the election of a successor to Bishop Agapitus for Ravenna. When he arrived at the church a white dove landed three times on his shoulders, so the people took this as a sign elected him.[2] When he became bishop, his wife and daughter, Innocentia, took the veil.
He attended the Council of Sardica in 343.[2]
He was buried in Classe near Ravenna.[2]
He was purported to be an example of not only a married priest, but a married archbishop.[3]
Andreas Agnellus, in his Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis, mentions the founding of a church dedicated to Severus at Classe and the later translation of his relics from a nearby monasterium dedicated to Rophilius, which appears to have taken place around the year 500.[4]
On the feast of Pentecost 582, Archbishop John II "Romanus" consecrated the Basilica of San Severo in Ravenna-Classe at his burial place and in his honor - it was destroyed in 1820 (and excavated from 1964 to 1967).
A Gallic priest named Felix stole Severus' bones together with those of his wife Vincentia and daughter Innocentia and brought them to Pavia.[1] In 836 Bishop Otgar of Mainz acquired the relics and transferred them to first to Mainz, Germany, and eventually to a predecessor building of St Severus' Church, Erfurt, where they were buried and still lie today.[5] [6] Severus is depicted in Justinian's mosaics in Saint Apollinaire in Classis, and his name is recorded in early martyrologies.
There is a Saint Severus Parish Church in Boppard, Germany.
A different St. Severus was martyred in Ravenna during the reign of Maximian, and some early records confused him with the bishop.