Henry of Treviso

Henry of Treviso, known in Italian as Enrico da Bolzano or Arrigo da Bolzano and in German as Heinrich von Bozen, was a poor layman from the Tyrol who became the object of a strong popular cult in the city of Treviso. He was born in Bolzano, a German-speaking town of the South Tyrol that then formed part of the Holy Roman Empire, at an unknown date in the thirteenth century. Surviving sources do not record an exact year of birth. He was of modest condition and worked as a laborer. According to the traditional account of his life, which circulated in Treviso after his death, he married and had a son; both his wife and his child died, and he thereafter left his native place.

He settled in Treviso in the Veneto, where he spent his remaining years. There he lived as a beggar, asking for alms at church doors and in the streets. He was remembered for sharing with other poor people much of what he was given, keeping for himself only what was needed for bare subsistence. He heard Mass every day and passed long hours in prayer in the churches of Treviso, above all in the cathedral. Those who knew him described a man of humility, gentleness, and patience, who did not quarrel and who accepted want without complaint. He was not a professed member of a religious order; he remained a layman.

Henry died in Treviso on 10 June 1315. The people of the city at once acclaimed him as a holy man. His body was buried in the cathedral, an honor not usually granted to a beggar and a sign of the esteem in which he was already held. In the months and years that followed, numerous favors and healings were attributed to his intercession, and both the clergy and the communal authorities of Treviso encouraged his memory. A tomb cult formed around his remains, and his reputation spread in the region.

In the eighteenth century Pope Benedict XIV confirmed the immemorial public cult of Henry for the Diocese of Treviso, a recognition commonly treated as equivalent to beatification. His feast is celebrated on 10 June, the anniversary of his death. He is particularly venerated in Treviso, where his relics are still kept in the cathedral, and he is regarded as a patron of that city. Beyond the outline of his poverty, prayer, and charity, and beyond the date and place of his death, little can be established with certainty; no contemporary autobiography or rich documentary dossier survives, and the portrait of Henry remains that of a humble layman whose holiness was recognized first by the people among whom he lived.