Saint Pardus ( it, San Pardo; 6th century - 7th century) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

associated with

Larino Larino ( nap, label= Campobassan dialect, Larìne; la, Larinum) is a town and ''comune'' of approximately 8,100 inhabitants in Molise, province of Campobasso, southern Italy. It is located in the fertile valley of the Biferno River. The old to ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Larino Cathedral Larino Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Larino; Basilica concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta e San Pardo) is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Larino in the Province of Campobasso, Molise, Italy. The dedication is to the Assumption of the Virgin Mar ...

is dedicated to him.

Life

There is some disagreement about the life of Saint Pardus. He is often described as the first

bishop of Larino The Catholic diocese of Larino is located in the province of Campobasso, Southern Italy, c. 18 mi. (29 km) south of Termoli. It existed from the 7th century until 1986. In that year it was united into the diocese of Termoli-Larino. It was a suffra ...

, but also as a bishop somewhere in the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...

(or possibly

Myra Myra ( grc, Μύρα, ''Mýra'') was a Lycian, then ancient Greek, then Greco-Roman, then Byzantine Greek, then Ottoman town in Lycia, which became the small Turkish town of Kale, renamed Demre in 2005, in the present-day Antalya Province of ...

) who after being driven from his see took refuge in Rome. There is also some uncertainty in Pardus's chronology: he is usually connected with the 7th century, and the conventional year of his death is 650, but there is a strong tradition linking him to

Pope Gregory II Pope Gregory II ( la, Gregorius II; 669 – 11 February 731) was the bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 to his death.

(715-731). After Pardus had sought refuge in Rome, the pope (whether Gregory II or another) offered him many possible bishoprics. Pardus however chose to retire to the region around

Lucera Lucera ( Lucerino: ) is an Italian city of 34,243 inhabitants in the province of Foggia in the region of Apulia, and the seat of the Diocese of Lucera-Troia. Located upon a flat knoll in the Tavoliere Plains, near the foot of Daunian Mountain ...

Foggia Foggia (, , ; nap, label= Foggiano, Fògge ) is a city and former ''comune'' of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known ...

, where he intended to spend the rest of his life in prayer. This was not a random choice, as Lucera had formed part of the ancient

Magna Grecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...

and many communities of Greek descent were established there. On his way to Lucera however Pardus spent three years in Larino, the ancient Larinum, where he preached the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

. The legend is that he was a little old man with a white beard, and was missing a thumb. Once in Lucera, he helped build two churches, and then spent his last years in penitence and prayer until his death. His feast day is 26 May, but in Larino the feast of San Pardo is celebrated over 3 days, 25–27 May.

Sources

*Lanzoni, Francesco (1927).
Le diocesi d'Italia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII (an. 604)
'. Faenza: F. Lega. , pp. 273-276.

External links

Santiebeati.it: San Pardo

Sito sulla festività del Patrono di Larino

6th-century births 7th-century deaths Italian saints 7th-century Christian saints {{Italy-saint-stub