Fulgenzio di Otricoli

Who they were

An ancient inscription in the Umbrian town of Otricoli, on the Via Flaminia, tells of Bishop Fulgentius, who found the body of the martyr Victor and built an altar in his honour; some scholars think this is the same sixth-century bishop of Otricoli recorded by Pope Gregory the Great, who tells of a miracle Fulgentius worked.

When the Ostrogothic king Totila, invading Italy, passed through Otricoli, Fulgentius offered him gifts to spare the town, but Totila had the bishop confined instead within a circle drawn on the ground. Though Fulgentius suffered under the burning sun, rain suddenly began to fall everywhere except on the spot where he stood; the wonder turned Totila's anger into admiration, and the story has been told and depicted in every surviving account of his life. His feast falls on 22 May.

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 Otricoli remembered for a miracle recorded by Pope Gregory the Great involving the Ostrogothic king Totila.