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.

In the tenth century, he became the subject of an anonymous Latin biography, the Vita Barbatiani, inspired by the brief mention by Agnellus and the existence of a church dedicated to him in Ravenna.

These include an account of miraculous healings composed by Sophronius of Jerusalem, elements from the Liber Pontificalis and a biography of Pope Sylvester I.

[5] Although the creative reworking of tradition leaves "facts concerning the actual life of a man living in the fifth century ... ultimately unreachable", the work is not a mere forgery.

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.