Petronius of Bologna
Italian bishop and saint
Petronius (Italian: Petronio) (died ca. 450 AD) was bishop of Bologna during the fifth century. He is a patron saint of the city. Born of a noble Roman family, he became a convert to Christianity and subsequently a priest. As bishop of Bologna, he built the Church of Santo Stefano.
Life
The only sources on Petronius are a letter written by Bishop Eucherius of Lyon (died 450–455) to Valerianus, and Gennadius' De viris illustribus. Eucherius describes Petronius as renowned in Italy for his virtues. Gennadius writes that Petronius belonged to a noble family whose members occupied high positions at the imperial Court at Milan and in the provincial administrations at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries.
His father (also named Petronius) was probably praefectus praetorio, since a Petronius filled this office in Gaul in 402–408. The treatise De ordinatione episcopi, bearing the name of Petronius as author, is by the elder Petronius.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q982077. VIAF identifies the subject as 30343824. The Library of Congress control number is n94092502. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Petronius of Bologna” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.