Saint Barbatianus

Barbatianus, sometimes anglicized Barbatian, was a Syrian hermit, monk and healer who served as the confessor of the Empress Galla Placidia, who lived in Ravenna between 417 and 450.

Life
According to the standard hagiography, Barbatianus was from Antioch. He came to Rome with a companion around 418, shortly after the election of Pope Boniface I. There he was identified as a wonderworker by Galla Placidia, who had him heal a servant of hers. He performed many miracles in Rome before returning with the empress to Ravenna. In Ravenna, he helped her acquire a relic of John the Evangelist for her new church and performed many more miracles. When he died, under the orders of Bishop Peter Chrysologus ((r. 431 – 450)), his body was embalmed with aromatics and entombed beside the altar of John the Baptist.

Legacy
Barbatianus came to be venerated as a saint. His feast was celebrated on December 31 in the Roman calendar and on January 2 in Ravenna. Early on his feast was included in the calendars kept at the abbeys of Cluny and Anchin.

The church (actually a monastery) dedicated to Barbatianus and the Baptist was acquired by the archbishopric at some point and in 1040 by Pomposa Abbey. Around that time, his relics were transferred to the cathedral of Ravenna, where a mosaic image of Barbatianus was added to the apse in the twelfth century.