Hierarch
Saint (Hierarch) Leucius of Brindisi
время жизни не установлено (по месяцеслову — V в.)
Also known as: Свт. Левкий исп., еп. Врунтисиопольский, Левкий Исповедник, Левкий Александрийский, Левкий Брундизийский, Евтропий
A confessor from Alexandria who, according to his Life, was abbot and bishop of Alexandria before going to preach in Italy, where he became the first bishop of Brundisium (Brindisi) and is venerated as the city's enlightener.
According to the Life compiled by St Dimitry of Rostov from Latin sources, St Leucius was born in Alexandria and named Eutropius. Raised in a monastery where his widowed father became a monk, he declined to become abbot at eighteen out of humility. A revelation foretold that he would become a bishop and enlighten the city of Brundisium in Italy, and he received the new name Leucius. Ordained and made abbot, he worked miracles, and about three thousand pagans were baptized after he delivered a village from a demon in the form of a great serpent. He later became bishop of Alexandria.
When the governor Saturninus plotted to kill him, Leucius forbade his flock to resist, appointed a successor and sailed to Italy. There, according to the Life, his prayer ended a two-year drought, and the governor Antiochus and many citizens of Brundisium were baptized. He asked to be buried where his ship had landed, and a church was built over his grave.
The Orthodox Encyclopedia notes that the Latin Lives (8th–13th centuries) are historically unreliable and that his dates cannot be fixed: he is placed between the 2nd and 5th centuries. Pope Gregory the Great mentions his relics at Brundisium in 601; they were later moved to Trani and Benevento, and an altar in his honour with relics was consecrated in Brindisi cathedral in 1771. The West keeps his feast on 11 January; the Russian Church commemorates him on 20 June (3 July).