CONCERNING S. SEVERUS, BISHOP OF CATANIA IN SICILY.
AROUND THE YEAR 800
CommentarySeverus, Bishop of Catania in Sicily (S.)
[1] Octavius Caietanus in volume 2 of the Lives of the Saints of Sicily, page 32, prefixes for himself this title: Several Saints in Sicily, Confessors, Bishops, Abbots, monks, of uncertain age. And then writes: Before the Saracen domination and the island of Sicily laid waste by their wicked sword and fire, very many Sicilians excelled in the fame of sanctity, not all known, but very few, unearthed from the darkness by me with much labor: Name in the Sicilian Records, nor is it certain under which reigning Prince they shone: which is the more bitter, that a kind of widespread fog obscured so many stars, removed them from our eyes, and we have only bare names and feast days from the sacred Latin or Greek records, which is evidence that divine honors were formerly rendered to them. S. Severus the Bishop is celebrated at Catania on the ninth day before the Kalends of April. So says Caietanus there, who in his Sicilian Martyrology cites only the Menologion of Cardinal Sirletus and records this: At Catania, of S. Severus, Bishop and Confessor. The words of the cited Menologion are these: Menologion of the Greeks On the same day, of our holy Father Severus, Bishop of the city of Catania in Sicily. We add also the authority of the most ancient manuscript Menaea, which we examined in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, in which the following was contained: and manuscript Menaea. Memory of our holy Father Severus, Bishop of Catania.
[2] Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy fashions this eulogy for him: Ferrarius's eulogy. Severus, on account of his singular virtues, was called to govern the Church of Catania, and so discharged the episcopal office that, while living, he obtained the highest praise, and on his departure from life was counted among the Saints. He departed to the Lord on the ninth day before the Kalends of April, celebrated among the Greeks. So says Ferrarius, citing only the Menologion of the Greeks. Rocco Pirro, book 3 of Sacred Sicily, first Notice, establishes him as the fourteenth Bishop of Catania and adds: S. Severus governed the Church of Catania under the Emperor Nicephorus, image. whose memory is recalled at Catania on March 24. There is a very ancient image of our Severus on a panel of the baptismal font of the Catanian cathedral, dedicated to S. Mary of the Alms. But Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, citing also the Tables of the Church of Catania, says he lived under Constantine and Irene around the time of Charlemagne. time of his See. Irene was married to the Emperor Leo, son of Constantine Copronymus, in the year 769, and when he died in the year 780, she reigned with her son Constantine; when he was killed in the year 797 and Irene was deported to Lesbos in the year 802, Nicephorus ruled; and so S. Severus could easily have held the See of Catania under all of these. Ecclesiastical Office. The Ecclesiastical Office of S. Severus is celebrated in the Church of Catania under the double rite, and everything is recited from the Common of Confessor Bishops, the Mass, "The Lord established for him." So the Order of the Divine Office printed at Catania for the year 1628.