Saint of the Day – 5 September – Saint Alvito de León OSB (Died 1063)

Saint of the Day – 5 September – Saint Alvito de León OSB (Died 1063) Bishop of León between 1057 and 1063, Monk and Abbot. Also known as Albito, Avitus.

He was the son of Aloito Fernández de Saavedra, who was a nobleman and senior butler to King Bermudo II of León and Urrace López of Lemos. His older brother, Arias Aloitiz, inherited his father’s estate, which included the castle of Arias and the territories of Parga, Villalba and Mondoñedo. He was a family relative of St Rudesind.

Alvito was the Confessor to King Fernando I of León, a Monk and the Benedictine Abbot of the Sahagún Monastery. Various documents from May 1057 list his presence at the Bishop of the Diocese after the resignation of his predecessor Cipriano.

In 1063 King Fernando organised an expedition against the muslims of the south peninsula and after his military successes he sent Alvito to Seville and to the Bishop of Astorga Ordoño, with the mission that they recover the body of Saint Justa. They did not successfully find these remains but they did find those of Saint Isidore, whose burial place was revealed to Alvito in a revelation, which also revealed his approaching death.

Indeed, the Bishop from León died a week after discovering the Isidore’s tomb and Bishop Ordoño returned to León with the bodies of both, St Isisdore and St Alvito.

In the presence of Abbot Silos Saint Domingo, St Isidore was buried in the Church of Santa Maria the Ruler.

According to tradition, before Alvito was buried, St Isidore appeared to King Fernando demanding that his body be present at the burial of Alvito, as was finally done.

Alvito death occurred pre-congregation and although he has never been formally Canonised, he has always been recognised as a Saint in the Church at León. In the Spanish calendar of Saints he appears today.