ON ST. SURANUS, ABBOT IN ITALY, MARTYR.
Sixth century.
CommentarySuranus, Abbot, Martyr in Italy (St.)
From various sources.
[1] The name of St. Suranus is found inscribed in the tables of the Roman Martyrology on January 24 in these words: Likewise of Blessed Suranus the Abbot, who in the time of the Lombards flourished in sanctity. The feast of St. Suranus. The Benedictine Martyrology of Menard and that of Wion also mention him. Ferrari in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy calls him a Martyr, the title of martyrdom, as do Peter de Natalibus in book 11, chapter 113, and Trithemius in book 3 on the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 20. And indeed not without reason, since his beneficence seems to have been the occasion of his death, and his profession of Catholic piety, which was hateful to the barbarians. St. Gregory briefly sketches his life and glorious death thus in book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 22.
[2] With certain religious men also attesting, while I was still in the monastery I learned that, in this time of the Lombards, near in this province which is called Sura, his generosity to the poor, there was a certain Father of a monastery, of venerable life, named Suranus, who bestowed upon the captives who came to him, fleeing from the plundering of the Lombards, all that he seemed to have in the monastery. And when he had spent all his own clothing and that of his Brethren and their cells in almsgiving, he spent whatever he was able to have in the garden. But when all things had been spent, the Lombards suddenly came to him, seized him, and began to demand gold from him. When he told them that he had absolutely nothing, his death, he was led by them to a nearby mountain, on which stood a forest of immense size: there a certain captive was hiding in flight inside a hollow tree, where one of the Lombards, drawing his sword, killed the aforementioned venerable man. The miracle that followed. As his body fell to the ground, the whole mountain and forest were immediately shaken, as if the earth, which had trembled, wished to say that it could not bear the weight of his sanctity.
[3] So writes St. Gregory. What Sura is, we confess we do not know. Ferrari thinks it was in Umbria: for in Umbria, he says, The province of Sura, where it is. the Suerani peoples are mentioned by Pliny. Pliny in book 3, chapter 14, has Suasani, although certain copies call them Suarani, others Suarrani, others Suareani. Ptolemy places Souasan between Forum Sempronii and Petra Pertusa. But St. Gregory seems to indicate a place nearer to the City, when he says "near in this province." If that "near" refers not to the city of Rome but to what precedes, he had already treated in chapter 21 of the province of Valeria, which was also that of the Marsi, likewise near the City.