ST APIAN OF PAVIA, MONK - 6 NOVEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 6th of November

ST APIAN OF PAVIA, MONK 

Saint Apian (Appianus, Appianus, Apuanus) was born in Liguria and entered the monastery of St Peter "in Coelo aureo", where he was later appointed supplier (oeconomus) by his abbot. 

Sent by his superiors to Comachio (Comaclum, Cimaculum) to provide and dispatch salt for the monastery, he went about his business during the summer, without neglecting his godly practices. In winter, however, when there was nothing to do, he shut himself up in a narrow cell near that city, and lived enclosed in the strictest mortification. He died there; this happened in the year 800. 

When the inhabitants of Pavia wanted to secretly fetch his body from there, the vessel on to which they had hoisted the holy monk's dead body could not be moved despite all efforts, so that the Pavians returned home without having achieved anything. 

Probably to protect his mortal remains from civil unrest and war, the relics of the saint were officially moved to Pavia at a later stage, where they were then buried in the above-mentioned monastery church. 

Initially, the officium de confess. non pontif. was prayed on the day of his translation into his monastery. Later, however, when the files were lost and the circumstances of his life had faded more and more from memory, the officium conf. pont. was celebrated instead, because over time the assumption had crept in that he had been a bishop in Africa and that his body had come via Sardinia from that continent along with the relics of St Augustine and thus arrived at Pavia. 

In the various martyrologies his feast is celebrated on different days; the Bollandists* choose the day on which the monks at Pavia celebrated it. As Mabillon* proves, Apian's actual date of death was November 6. March 4 is his feast day, too.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858)

*A hagiography source used by the authors 

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Apian may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.