Arialdo

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Saint Arialdo
Deacon and martyr
Born	c. 1010 in unknown
Died	June 27, 1066 in Lago Maggiore
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	1067
Major shrine	Cathedral of Milan
Feast	June 27
Attributes	Depicted in the vestments of a deacon, holding the palm of martyrdom
Saints Portal

Saint Arialdo (ca. 1010-June 27, 1066) is a Milanese saint of the eleventh century. He was martyred at Milan in 1066, for his attempt to reform the simoniacal and immoral clergy of that city.

He was of noble extraction, born either at Carimate or at Cutiacum (Cucciago), near Milan. After his studies, at Laon and Paris, was made a deacon in the cathedral city of Milan in 1050. For inveighing against abuses he was excommunicated by the bishop Guido di Velate, but was immediately reinstated by Pope Stephen IX, who bade him continue the work of reformation.

He succeeded in having the bishop excommunicated because of his repeated lapses, but a riot ensued, resulting in serious injury to Arialdo. Previously an attempt had been made on his life with a poisoned sword. Later, when on his way to Rome, he was set upon by the emissaries of Guido and slain.

According to some sources[1], he had been carried to an island on Lago Maggiore, where he was horribly tortured by two clerics, who mutilated his eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet, and genitalia. Once dead, they attached weights to his body and tossed it into the lake. This was June 27 (sometimes given as June 26), 1066.

[edit] Veneration

Ten months after, his body was found in Lago Maggiore in a perfect state of preservation, and emitting a sweet odour. It was carried with great pomp to Milan, and exposed in the church of St. Ambrose from Ascension to Pentecost. It was subsequently interred in the church of St. Celsus, and in the following year, 1067, Pope Alexander II declared him a martyr.