Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. , at
sacred-texts.com ST. BARBATUS was born in the territory of
Benevento in Italy, toward the end of the pontificate of St.
Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. His
parents gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus in his
youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanctity which
recommends him to our veneration. The innocence, simplicity, and
purity of his manners, and his extraordinary progress in all
virtues, qualified him for the service of the altar, to which he
was assumed by taking Holy Orders as soon as the canons of the
Church would allow it. He was immediately employed by his bishop
in preaching, for which he had an extraordinary talent, and,
after some time, made curate of St. Basil's in Morcona, a town
near Benevento. His parishioners were steeled in their
irregularities, and they treated him as a disturber of their
peace, and persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding
their malice conquered by his patience and