Severus of Vienne

{{Short description|Indian-born French saint}}

{{Infobox saint

| honorific_prefix= Saint

| name = Severus of Vienne

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| birth_place = India

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| death_date = c. 455 A.D.

| death_place = Italy

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| feast_day = 8 August

| attributes = Holding a devil in a chain{{cite book |last1=Husenbeth |first1=F. C. (Frederick Charles) |last2=Jessopp |first2=Augustus |last3=Blackburne |first3=Edward Lushington |last4=Marsh |first4=William |title=Emblems of saints |date=1882 |publisher=Norwich, Printed by A. H. Goose and co. |url=https://archive.org/details/emblemsofsaints00huseuoft/page/190/mode/2up |access-date=13 October 2021}}

| patronage = Vienne, Saint-Sève

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Severus of Vienne (died c. 455) was a priest who evangelised in Vienne, France. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church{{cite web |title=Saint Severus of Vienne |url=https://catholicsaints.info/saint-severus-of-vienne/ |website=CatholicSaints.Info |access-date=2 September 2021 |date=7 August 2010}}{{cite book |last1=Abbey |first1=Saint Augustine's |last2=Press |first2=Aeterna |title=The Book of Saints |date=1966 |publisher=Aeterna Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpfmCgAAQBAJ |access-date=2 September 2021 |language=en}} as well as in other denominations.{{cite book |last1=Kurikilamkatt |first1=James |title=First Voyage of the Apostle Thomas to India: Ancient Christianity in Bharuch and Taxila |date=31 December 2005 |publisher=ISD LLC |isbn=978-1-925612-63-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7U7VDwAAQBAJ |access-date=2 September 2021 |language=en}}In principle, those recognised as saints prior to 1050 are common to the Catholic and Orthodox churches, so Severus of Vienne is an Orthodox saint too. Severus was reportedly Indian by birth{{cite journal |last1=Raisharma |first1=Sukanya |title=Much Ado about Vienne? A Localizing Universal Chronicon |journal=Historiography and Identity III: Carolingian Approaches |series=Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages |date=January 2021 |volume=29 |pages=271–290 |doi=10.1484/m.celama-eb.5.120167 |url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.120167 |access-date=2 September 2021 |publisher=Brepols Publishers |isbn=978-2-503-58655-7 |s2cid=234198159 |language=en|url-access=subscription }} and of wealthy origins. His entry in the Roman Martyrology reads:{{cite book |title=The Roman Martyrology|date=1916 |publisher=Baltimore : John Murphy |url=https://archive.org/details/romanmartyrology00cathuoft |access-date=2 September 2021 |page = 237}} {{blockquote|"At Vienne, in France, St. Severus, priest and confessor, who undertook a painful journey from India in order to preach the Gospel in that city, and converted a great number of Pagans to the faith of Christ by his labors and miracles."|source=The Roman Martyrology (1916), p. 237}}

Severus settled in Vienne around 430.{{cite web |title=Saint Séver |url=https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/12104/Saint-Sever.html |website=nominis.cef.fr |access-date=22 September 2021}} He founded a church in honour of Saint Alban (now the church of Saint-Alban-du-Rhône) near Vienne.{{cite journal |title=Thursday, 21st January, 1915 |journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London |date=June 1915 |volume=27 |pages=54–67 |doi=10.1017/S0950797300013512 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.105911/page/n79/mode/2up |access-date=2 November 2021}} He died in Italy, but his body was brought back to Vienne and buried in the church dedicated to the protomartyr Saint Stephen, which he himself had constructed.{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=P. |title=Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan: A General Survey of the Progress of Christianity in India from Apostolic Times to the Present Day |date=17 December 2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-22821-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GsJEAAAQBAJ |access-date=2 September 2021 |language=en}}