Natal z Casale Monferrato

Who they were

According to a Life the Bollandists judge legendary, Natale came from Benevento and was a disciple of Evasio; when Evasio was made bishop of Asti, Natale followed him through Rome to Piedmont, was ordained a priest of the church of Asti, and evangelised with him in the area later called Casale Monferrato. Natale was away when the prefect had Evasio and his companions put to death; on hearing of it he hurried to the town and buried the bodies, remaining afterwards as priest of the young Christian community, according to one late account into great old age.

The chronology of these events cannot be fixed with confidence, and the Bollandists themselves decline to date Natale's life more precisely than to the third or the eighth century. What is certain historically is that his relics have been venerated in the cathedral of Casale since time immemorial, with his feast kept on 21 August; one hypothesis links his relics, together with Evasio's, to a transfer from Benevento under the Lombard king Liutprand.

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

Companion and disciple of Saint Evasio, remembered as the priest who buried him and built up the Christian community at Casale Monferrato; feast 21 August.