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|patronage=[[Pantelleria]]
|patronage=[[Casei Gerola]]; [[Pantelleria]]
|major_shrine= Casei Gerola
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Revision as of 20:28, 1 July 2008

Saint Fortunatus of Casei
Martyr
Bornpossibly Africa
Died286 AD
Agaunum, Switzerland
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Major shrineCasei Gerola
FeastOctober 16 (and third Sunday in October)
AttributesMilitary attire; or depicted as a bishop
PatronageCasei Gerola; Pantelleria

Saint Fortunatus of Casei is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. Tradition makes him a member of the Theban Legion, and thus martyred at Agaunum.[1] However, his relics were situated in the catacombs of Saint Callixtus in Rome until 1746, when Cardinal Guadagni, Roman vicar to Benedict XIV, re-exhumed and displayed Fortunatus’ relics in the collegiate church of Santa Maria in Via Lata in Rome.[2] It is unclear how the relics of Fortunatus reached Rome from the saint’s supposed place of death in the Swiss Alps.[3]

From Santa Maria in Via Lata, Fortunatus’ relics were translated to Casei Gerola in 1765, as a gift to the church there from the Holy See.[4] Casei Gerola, in the province of Pavia, was an important village of the diocese of Tortona, which had close ties to the papacy.[5] His relics were kept in an urn; Fortunatus’ skull was crushed, indicating the cause of death to be a fatal blow to the head.[6]

He was proclaimed patron saint of Pantelleria after he is believed to have aided the island through miraculous intervention during an earthquake in 1831 and a seaquake in 1891.[7] A procession in honor of the saint is held on October 16; a statue of the saint is carried on a boat.[8]

References