St. Barbatus of Benevento

St. Barbatus of Benevento was born around the year 610 near Benevento in southern Italy and died there on 19 February 682. Ordained a priest, he preached with great zeal in a region where Christianity was still mingled with lingering pagan superstition, and though at first he met with resistance and even hostility, his holiness of life and the fulfillment of his warnings gradually won the people to heed him.

Made bishop of Benevento around 663, he labored to root out the last remnants of idolatry among the Lombards who ruled the duchy, persuading them to abandon their worship of a golden serpent and their veneration of a sacred tree, which he had cut down. A faithful pastor, he took part in the Third Council of Constantinople in 680, which condemned the Monothelite heresy. Revered for his apostolic labors and his care for his flock, he died at an advanced age, and his memory is kept on 19 February.