Castrese di Sessa

Who they were

Little is certainly known of Saint Castrense (Castrese), a fifth-century bishop greatly venerated at Castel Volturno, where his statue is still carried in procession each August along the river. He is remembered in the ancient marble calendar of Naples, but sources disagree on whether he was bishop of Castel Volturno or of Sessa Aurunca, where by one tradition he died among his people after celebrating the sacred mysteries.

A legendary passio places him among a group of twelve or thirteen African bishops who reached Campania in the fifth century fleeing the persecution of the Vandals under Genseric. He came to be regarded as a martyr because his name was found alongside that of the martyr Saint Priscus in seventh-century paintings. His relics were moved from Sessa to Capua, and later, before the twelfth century, to Monreale in Sicily by King William II, where his veneration remains strong.

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

Fifth-century bishop, traditionally one of twelve or thirteen African bishops who fled to Campania from Vandal persecution; venerated as a martyr and patron of Castel Volturno and Monreale.