Dacius (bishop of Milan)

Dacius
Archbishop of Milan
Saint Dacius as an exorcist
Church	Catholic Church Orthodox Church
Appointed	c. 530 AD
Term ended	5 February 552
Predecessor	Magnus
Successor	Vitale
Personal details
Died	5 February 552 Chalcedon
Sainthood
Feast day	January 14
Venerated in	Catholic Church, Orthodox Church

Catholic Church

Dacius or Datius (Italian: Dazio) was Bishop of Milan from c. 530 to 552. He is honoured as a saint in the Catholic Church.

An active ecclesiastical politician, he was an ally of Pope Vigilius in the latter's struggles against Justinian, involved in the Three-Chapter Controversy. He is remembered as a defender of Catholic orthodoxy against the heresies of his day.

Before he became a bishop, Dacius was a monk. He was elected bishop of Milan on or about 530, and soon he had to face the worst period of the history of Milan, which started with the terrible famine of 535-6. During the famine, Dacius obtained some grain from the praetorian prefect for Italy, Cassiodorus, for free distribution to the poor.

At the same time as the famine, there began the Gothic War (535–554) between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantine Empire. Dacius sided with the Byzantines, and at the end of 537 (or early in 538) he went to Rome along with some representatives of the people of Milan to ask the Byzantine general Belisarius to send a force of 1,000 men, under Mundilas, to free the city from the Ostrogoths. Initially the operation was successful, but soon the Goths, led by general Uraias, allied with the Burgundians and besieged the town as they considered the support Milan gave to the Byzantines to be a betrayal. The town surrendered in March 539, and in revenge Uraias razed Milan to the ground, exterminated 30,000 male citizens and sold the women as slaves. Dacius survived this catastrophe because he was in Rome: he never returned to Milan again.