Saint Aspren of Naples

Aspren was the first bishop of Naples, and his story stands at the start of everything that came afterward in Naples. The Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum and the Catalogus episcoporum Neapolitanorum say so, and his name is commemorated on August 3 in the marble calendar of Naples — a ninth-century slab that is one of the oldest records of the city’s liturgy. According to those texts, he led the community for about twenty-three years. The story goes that he received the Christian message from the apostle Peter himself. Peter, coming from Antioch on his way to Rome, is said to have stopped in Naples; there he healed an old woman, who converted and whom tradition calls Saint Candida. It was Candida who brought Aspren, who was sick, to Peter: once healed, he was baptized and then made the head of that first community. About him, the sources say one thing above all: that he loved the poor and welcomed anyone, regardless of rank or station. That, they say, is why the Christian community of Naples grew. His name lives on in the city: the chapel of Sant’Aspreno in the Cathedral, and Sant’Aspreno al Porto, the little church wedged between the buildings near the Borsa, the old stock exchange, where tradition says he lived. Neapolitans pray to him against headaches. If your name is Aspreno, today is your name day.