St. Barbatus received a Christian education and took holy orders as soon as the canons of the church allowed it. He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching for which he had an extraordinary talent and some time afterwards made curate of St. Basil’s in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His parishioners desired only to slumber in their sins and could not bear the remonstrances of their pastor who endeavored to awake them to a sense of their miseries and to sincere repentance. They treated him as a disturber of their peace and persecuted him with the utmost violence. They had recourse to slanders in which was such virulence and success that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors among them. By these fiery trials, God purified his heart from all earthly attachments and perfectly crucified it to the world. St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop in 653 and assisted at councils held by Pope Agatho in 680 and 681. He died in 682.