Biography
Damian of Pavia
About Damian of Pavia
Damian was born around the middle of the seventh century. Still a cleric in 679, he prepared the Milanese synod’s statement for Mansuetus. He became bishop of Pavia after March 680.
The statement affirms Christ’s full humanity and divinity, including two natural wills and operations, against the teaching of a single will.
Paul the Deacon remembers Damian as both learned and holy. His account also places the bishop in a dangerous political dispute. When Alahis seized the royal palace at Pavia, Damian sent his deacon Thomas with the blessing of the church, hoping to protect himself and his community from harm.
The approach brought no reassurance. Paul describes Alahis insulting Thomas with a crude question about his sexual conduct, then receiving him with harsh words. The clergy feared that they could not endure the new ruler’s hostility and increasingly hoped for Cunipert’s return. Damian’s embassy appears in this account as an attempt to reach an accommodation with a ruler who had taken power, rather than an open confrontation.
Around 698 Damian presided over a council at Pavia that reconciled the schismatic bishops of Aquileia with Rome. His episcopate also changed the city’s churches: he made Saint Stephen’s his cathedral and established an episcopal residence within the walls. He died around 710.
He is commemorated on April 12.
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