Saint Narnus ( it, San Narno) is venerated as the first

bishop of Bergamo The Diocese of Bergamo ( la, Dioecesis Bergomensis; it, Diocesi di Bergamo; lmo, Diocesi de Bergum) is a Episcopal see, see of the Catholic Church in Italy, and is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Milan.Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

tradition holds that he was consecrated during the

Apostolic Age Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus (–29 AD) to the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles () and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age. Early Christianity ...

in his office by St. Barnabas, although Narnus probably lived later than that. The oldest source that mentions Narnus dates from the 13th century; it was written by Branca da Gandino, a

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

. He considers Narnus a bishop of Bergamo during the reign of

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

in the fourth century.

Veneration

He was buried in the

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

of a church in Bergamo dedicated to

Saint Alexander of Bergamo Saint Alexander of Bergamo (died c. 303) is the patron saint of Bergamo, as well as Capriate San Gervasio and Cervignano d'Adda. Alexander may have been a Roman soldier or resident of Bergamo who was tortured and killed for not renouncing his Chr ...

. When this church was demolished in 1561, Narnus’

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

, as well as those of his successor St.

Viator Viator is a municipality of Almería province, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. José Brocca José Brocca (Professor José Brocca Ramón, 1891 – 1950) was a pacifist and humanitarian of the Spanish Civil War, who allied himself ...

, were

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

to the church of San Vincenzo, today the

cathedral of Bergamo Bergamo Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Bergamo, ''Cattedrale di Sant'Alessandro'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Bergamo, Italy, dedicated to Saint Alexander of Bergamo, patron saint of the city. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bergamo. History From ...

, where they still rest today.

References

External links

Saint Narnus

Santi e Beati
4th-century Christian saints Italian saints Bishops of Bergamo 345 deaths Year of birth unknown {{Italy-saint-stub