Saint Baudolino (c. 700 – c. 740) was a
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
who lived at the time of the
Lombard king
Liutprand in Forum Fulvii (now
Villa del Foro), a locality on the lower reaches of the river
Tanaro
The Tanaro (; pms, Tane ; ; la, Tanarus), is a long river in northwestern Italy. The river begins in the Ligurian Alps, near the border with France, and is the most significant right-side tributary to the Po in terms of length, size of dra ...
in north-west Italy. He is said to have been the son of a noble family, but to have given all his wealth to the poor before moving to a miserable hut near the river. He is the
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of the nearby city of
Alessandria, where his
feast
A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...
is celebrated on the Sunday following 10 November.
Life
He is first mentioned in the ''
Historia Langobardorum
The ''History of the Lombards'' or the ''History of the Langobards'' ( la, Historia Langobardorum) is the chief work by Paul the Deacon, written in the late 8th century. This incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate ...
'' ( en, History of the Lombards) which was written some forty years after his death by
Paul the Deacon. Baodolinus is described there as “a man of wonderful holiness…who was distinguished for many miracles”, and as having been endowed with the gifts of
clairvoyance
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
and
prophecy
In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a '' prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or pr ...
. One specific miracle is recorded. When Liutprand is hunting in the forest near Forum, and his nephew Aufusus is accidentally injured by an arrow, the king sends to Baodolinus asking him to pray for the life of the boy. But the messenger receives the reply:
I know for what cause you are coming, but that which you have been sent to ask cannot be done since the boy is dead.
Aufusus had indeed died and Liutprand understood that Baodolinus had the spirit of prophecy.
Baudolino died around 740 and was laid to rest at Forum Fulvii.
Remains and legend
Four centuries later, in 1168, Alessandria was founded as a bastion of the
Lombard League against the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
. The citizens of Forum were transferred to the new city, bringing with them the remains of the saint. In 1174, according to tradition, he appeared on the bastions of the city and put to flight the Imperial troops who were besieging the city. In 1189 a church was built in his honour under the rule of the
Humiliati
The Humiliati (Italian ''Umiliati'') were an Italian religious order of men formed probably in the 12th century. It was suppressed by a papal bull in 1571 though an associated order of women continued into the 20th century.
Origin
The origin of ...
. These monks, and the Dominicans who succeeded them on the suppression of order of the Humiliati in 1571, elaborated the scanty accounts of Baudolino’s life and promulgated such anachronistic beliefs as that he had belonged to the order of the Humiliati and that he had been an archbishop of Alessandria.
In 1786 Saint Baudolino was proclaimed the principal patron of the city and
diocese of Alessandria.
With the closure of the church in 1803, Baudolino's remains were transferred to the church of Sant'Alessandro and then in 1810 to a chapel dedicated to him in the new cathedral.
In 2000
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of th ...
, a native of Alessandria, published his novel ''
Baudolino
''Baudolino'' is a 2000 novel by Umberto Eco about the adventures of a man named Baudolino in the known and mythical Christian world of the 12th century.
''Baudolino'' was translated into English in 2001 by William Weaver
William is a male ...
'', whose eponymous twelfth-century hero meets the saint as a boy on a number of occasions "in the Frescheta woods there specially when there's real fog when you can't see the tip of your nose." Forty years later, during his career as a
stylite near
Byzantium, Eco has his hero perform a
miracle
A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...
of
clairvoyance
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
modelled closely on that of the saint.
Iconography
He has been depicted dressed as a bishop, surrounded by the geese, deer and other animals which, according to his legend, enjoyed listening to the hermit - anticipating a later similar depiction of Saint
Francis of Assisi.
References and further reading
* Antonio Borrelli
San Baudolino di Alessandria Eremita an essay from the ''Santi, beati e testimoni – Enciclopedia dei Santi'' website.
* Paulus Diaconus, ''Historia Langobardorum''
* Paul the Deacon, ''History of the Lombards'', translation by William Dudley Foulke, 1907
Book 6
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baudolino
700 births
740 deaths
People from Alessandria
Italian hermits
8th-century Christian saints
Medieval Italian saints