Vigilius of Trent

Death

According to a much later tradition,

A statue of the god Neptune stands atop a fountain in front of Vigilius' shrine in Trent today.

Veneration Theatre playbill for the S. Vigilio Fair in 1857, preserved in the Municipal Library of Trento

Vigilius was buried at a church that he built at Trent, later expanded by his successor Eugippius, and dedicated to Vigilius. This became Trento Cathedral. He was immediately venerated after his death, and the acts of his life and death were sent to Rome, and Pope Innocent I, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "seems to have made a formal canonization, for Benedict XIV calls Vigilius the first martyr canonized by a pope."

Vigilius' arm was removed as a separate relic and placed into its own reliquary in 1386. He is venerated in Tyrol. A German farmers' saying associated with a 2nd feast day of 31 January was: "Friert es zu Vigilius / im März die Eiseskälte kommen muss!" ("If it freezes on St. Vigilius' Day, frost will come in March!"). There are similar sayings associated with other "weather saints".