Saint of the Day –12 October – Saint Opilio of Piacenza (Died mid 5th Century) Deacon. Opilio died in Piacenza of natural causes. He is also known as – Opilione.
Opilio is commonly remembered together with his brother St Gelasius and the Piacenza Bishop St Maurus. The three Saints are almost always remembered in a single chapter by the biographers and are always defined with the similar characteristics.
Opilio was a great example ,especially for his piety, his spirit of austere penance and his lively charity towards his neighbour. Tradition has it that he shared with the poor the food that his mother sent him through Sr Gelasius, his brother.
We have no certain information about his biography. Some inform us that as an Acolyte, he participated in the translation of the body of St Antoninus, commissioned by St Savinien.
The date of death of Saint Opilio can be placed in the first half of the 5th century. His bones rest in the Basilica of St Antoninus and some relics were brought by the Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, to the Chapel of the City’s Seminary.
There are various works depicting St Opilio Deacon, none of which can be traced online. In the Chapel of the Seminary, there is a painting of the late nineteenth Century, by the painter Ghittoni, which depicts the young St Opilio, with an ecstatic face in conversation with the Angels, together with St Gelasius.
Furthermore, there is still the only painting by the artist Bernardo Ferrari that depicts the two Saints and is located in the Basilica of St Antoninus in Piacenza.
In the Parish Church there is a painting from 1882, by Fedele Toscani, which depicts him alone. Finally, St Opilio is depicted in a portrait in relief in stone, in the Altar of the Crypt of the Piacenza Cathedral.
St Opilio is remembered by the Piacenza Church on 12 October.
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