Severinus of Noricum

Severinus of Noricum ( 410 – 8 January 482) is a saint, known as the "Apostle to Noricum". It has been speculated that he was born in either Southern Italy or in the Roman province of Africa. Severinus himself refused to discuss his personal history before his appearance along the Danube in Noricum, after the death of Attila in 453.

Severinus was a high-born Roman living as an anchorite in the East. He himself was an ascetic in practice. He is first recorded as traveling along the Danube in Noricum and Bavaria, preaching Christianity, procuring supplies for the starving, redeeming captives and establishing monasteries at Passau and Favianae. At the age of eight, the orphaned Anthony of Lerins was entrusted to the care of Severinus and brought up at the monastery. Upon the death of Severinus in 482, he was sent to Germany and put in the care of his uncle, Constantius, an early Bishop of Lorsch.

While the Western Empire was falling apart, Severinus, thanks to his virtues and organizational skills, committed himself to the religious and material care of the frontier peoples, also taking care of their military defense. He organized refugee camps, migrations to safer areas, and food distribution.

Severinus's efforts seem to have won him wide respect, including that of the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. Eugippius credits him with the prediction that Odoacer would become king of Rome. However, Severinus warned that Odoacer would rule not more than fourteen years. According to Eugippius, Gibuld of the Alamanni used to harry Passau, until he was asked by Severinus to free his Roman hostages. Gibuld was so impressed by the Christian abbot that he agreed to free seventy of his prisoners.

He died in his monastic cell at Favianae while singing Psalm 150. Six years after his death, his monks were driven from their abbey, and his body was taken to Italy, where it was at first kept in the Castel dell'Ovo, Naples, then eventually entombed at the Benedictine monastery rededicated to him, the Abbey of San Severino in the city of Naples.

Severinus is the patron saint of Austria, and of Bavaria. The estate was converted into a monastery before 500 to hold the saint's remains and Eugippius became an abbot there. The estate is also well attested as the place of exile of the deposed emperor Romulus Augustulus. Hence, the speculation that the Neapolitan woman Barbaria who received the relics in Castellum Lucullanum might have been Augustulus's mother.

Martin Luther made reference to St. Severinus in point 29 of his Ninety-five Theses suggesting that it is unclear whether all of the souls in purgatory desire to be redeemed, as it is said not to have been the case, for example, with Saints Severinus and Paschalis.