Ovidius ( pt, Santo Ovídio), also ''Saint Auditus'', was the third Bishop of Braga; he is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

saint.

Hagiography

According to

hagiographies A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...

of the 16th century, Ovidius was a

Roman 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 ...

citizen of Sicilian origin. Tradition states that he was sent to

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

by Pope Clement I, where he served as the city's third bishop around 95.Borrrelli, Antonio. "Sant' Audito (Ovidio) di Braga", Santi e Beati, September 16, 2002
/ref> He is said to have baptized

Saint Quiteria Quiteria ( es, Quiteria; ca, Quitèria; oc, Quiteira; french: Quitterie; pt, Quitéria) was a second-century virgin martyr and saint about whom nothing is certain except her name and her cult. She appears in the ''Roman Martyrology'', but not in ...

and her sisters after they were abandoned by their mother. He was

martyred A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

for his Christian faith in 135.

Veneration

The Portuguese call him ''Santo Ovídio'', and sometimes, by the folkloric ''São Ouvido'' (literally "Saint that is heard" or "Saint Ear"), a

folk-etymological Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

translation of the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name ''Auditus''; this name was then rendered as ''Ovídio''. His relics were elevated in 1527, thus giving official recognition to his cult.Holweck, Frederick George. ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints: With a General Introduction on Hagiology''
United Kingdom, B. Herder Book Company, 1924. 762 Accounts of the 17th century assert that in Lusitanian archaeological sites, Saint Ovidius was depicted in episcopal robes or in the garments of a hermit; these depictions testify to an ancient veneration. His sepulcher can be found in the Braga Cathedral, cathedral of Braga. Because of his name, Saint Auditus or Ovidius was traditionally invoked against auditory diseases. Under the base of his sepulcher in the cathedral, there were two holes into which the

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

would slip their fingers. They would then place their fingers into their ears by way of intercession with this saint. His feast day is June 3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ovidius 135 deaths Portuguese Roman Catholic saints Sicilian saints Bishops of Braga 1st-century bishops in Hispania 2nd-century bishops in Hispania Deaf culture Burials at Braga Cathedral 2nd-century Christian martyrs Year of birth unknown