Camposano does not mean healthy field, however fine the explanation may be: the story goes that refugees from Nola found safety and health here, and hence the name, but it is a folk etymology, as is the other hypothesis that derives it from a temple of Janus called Campus Iani. In the documents the village is Campasano and Campassano, and the original form points to a Latin personal name, Campasius, with the ending in ano typical of place names of ownership; the vowel that suggests campo is a later reconstruction. Under the fields, meanwhile, the chessboard of the Roman centuriation can still be read, along the course of the ancient Clanio that today separates Camposano from Cicciano.
The patron saint, on the other hand, remains a declared mystery. San Gavino was a general of cavalry and had orders to guard two prisoners, Proto and Gianuario; their ideas of charity struck him so deeply that he set them free, and for this he was beheaded. Why a village in the Nola countryside should have chosen him is not known: no certain notice has come down. Of the Roman Camposano there survive funerary cippi, some of which ended up set into the paving of the church of Santa Croce, and a few column drums: one of these now serves as the base of the saint's statue in the public garden.
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📅 Every year, on 25 October
On 25 October Camposano celebrates its patron Saint Gavinus the Martyr, whose choice has no documented historical reason; many faithful say they have received favours through his intercession.
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