Background
He was the son of the patrician Tertullus, was brought as a child to Saint Benedict at Sublaqueum (Subiaco) and dedicated to God as provided for in chapter 69 of the Rule of Saint Benedict (oblate).
He was the son of the patrician Tertullus, was brought as a child to Saint Benedict at Sublaqueum (Subiaco) and dedicated to God as provided for in chapter 69 of the Rule of Saint Benedict (oblate).
Saint Placidus (also known as Saint Placid) was a disciple of Saint Benedict. Here too occurred the incident related by Saint Gregory the Great (Dialogues, II, vii) of his rescue from drowning when his fellow monk, Saint Maurus, at Saint Benedict"s order ran across the surface of the lake below the monastery and drew Placidus safely to shore. lieutenant appears certain that he accompanied Saint Benedict when, about 529, he removed to Monte Cassino, which was said to have been made over to him by the father of Placidus.
Of his later life nothing is known, but in an ancient psalterium at Vallombrosa his name is found in the Litany of the Saints placed among the confessors immediately after those of Saint Benedict and Saint Maurus.
The same occurs in Codex CLV at Subiaco, attributed to the ninth century. He is venerated together with Saint Maurus on 5 October.
He is the co-patron of Messina along with the Madonna of the Letter, and is the official patron of Biancavilla, Castel di Lucio, Montecarotto, and Poggio Imperiale. Because a large portion of Easton, Pennsylvania"s Italian community originally came from Castel di Lucio, Saint Placidus is given particular veneration with an annual parade through South Side on the Sunday before Labor Day.
The Sunday after is the Feast of the Holy Cross, celebrated by immigrants from the neighboring town of Santo Stefano di Camastra.
There seems now to be no doubt that the Passio South. Placidi, purporting to be written by one Gordianus, a servant of the saint, on the strength of which he is usually described as abbot and martyr, is really the work of Peter the Deacon, a monk of Monte Cassino in the twelfth century (see Hippolyte Delehaye). The whole question is discussed by the Bollandists. The study that accompanied the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar states: "Saint Placidus, the disciple of Saint Benedict, is now universally distinguished from Saint Placidus, the unknown martyr in Sicily".