Bernolfo di Asti

Who they were

Bernolfo is venerated as a bishop and martyr chiefly through local devotion at Mondovì in Piedmont, though reliable historical sources about him barely exist. In 1514, when the high altar of Mondovì cathedral was consecrated, the bishop recorded placing there the relics of Saint Donatus, to whom the church is dedicated, and of the martyr Bernolfo.

Tradition made him a local bishop killed in one of the Saracen raids on south-western Piedmont in the ninth or tenth century; a chapel was built at Priola, near Mondovì, on the traditional site of his martyrdom, with an old painting showing him flayed to death and a wooden statue in bishop's vestments. A silver reliquary in the cathedral is said to hold his head, though it remains uncertain whether he was truly a local bishop or a martyr from elsewhere whose relics, like those of Saint Donatus, were later brought to Mondovì. His feast is 24 March.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Little-documented bishop and martyr venerated at Mondovì, where a reliquary holds his head; feast 24 March.