Fortunato di Fano

Who they were

The first record of his episcopate comes from a letter in which Pope Gregory the Great authorised him to sell sacred vessels to pay debts incurred in ransoming prisoners; Baronius dates this to the year 596. His Life, written by John, abbot of Nonantola, in the twelfth century, records among other things that his body was moved to a church built in his honour outside the Porta Maggiore on the Via Flaminia, and later to the cathedral, in a translation said to have taken place in 743 under Bishop Peter I.

In 1113, after a fire destroyed the cathedral, the relics of Fortunato, together with those of Saint Orso and Saint Eusebio, co-patrons of Fano, were identified by Bishop Peter II and placed beneath the high altar. In 1639 Bishop Ettore Diotallevi adorned the high altar with marble and had the saint's urn remade; the last examination of the relics was carried out by Bishop Antonio III Severoli in 1791. The Roman Martyrology records him at Fano in the Marche as a bishop who worked tirelessly for the ransom of prisoners.

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

Sixth-century bishop of Fano authorised by Pope Gregory the Great to sell sacred vessels to ransom prisoners; his relics were enshrined under the cathedral's high altar.