[1] According to legend, Severinus was taking a walk in a field while still a priest when he heard a voice tell him he would one day be bishop of Cologne.

His bones are today preserved in a gold shrine in the choir of St Severin's Church in Cologne.

That seen today is a reconstruction of 1819, as the medieval shrine was melted down for the gold in the period of French rule, c. 1795–98.

Its opening in 1999 corroborated the documented transfer of the bones of bishop Wigfried of Cologne (924–953), as it was possible to date the old inner wooden shrine by the latest dendrochronological techniques to the year 948.

[citation needed] Media related to Saint Severin of Cologne at Wikimedia Commons