Holiness on the Move: Mobility and Space in Byzantine Hagiography by Mihail Mitrea;

Author:Mihail Mitrea;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Greek Saints and Their Lives in Norman Italy

There are nine surviving saints’ vitae authored by Italo-Greeks between the late eleventh and the fourteenth centuries.5 Three of these concern saints who died before the Norman conquest (in one case by several centuries).6 However, the saints of the other six vitae (Table 6.1) span the entire period of Norman rule in southern Italy up to the early thirteenth century.

Table 6.1 Vitae of Greek saints of post-Byzantine Italy Name Date of saint Date of vita BHG Edition

Philaretos the Younger ca. 1020–1076 ca. 1076–1090 1513 Martino, 1993, 24–135

John Theristes d. ca. 10808 ca. 1217 894, 894a Borsari, 1953, 136–1519

Marina of Scanio b. 1062 early to the mid-12th c. 1170 Rossi Taibbi, 1959, 78–107

Luke of Isola ca. 1040–1114 ca. 1115–1125 2237 Schirò, 1954, 80–125

Bartholomew of Simeri d. ca. 1130 ca. 1130–1150 235 Zaccagni, 1996, 205–274

Cyprian of Calamizzi d. ca. 1215 ca. 1215–1230 2089 Schirò, 1950, 88–97

In terms of chronology, the saints fall into three broad groups: those who were active during and immediately after the Norman conquest (Philaretos, John); those who were active in the early decades of the Hauteville dynasty (Marina, Luke, Bartholomew); and one who lived through the transition from Norman to Hohenstaufen rule (Cyprian).

It becomes clear from a first glance that the six saints share two major characteristics. First, they are all from Sicily or Calabria; none of them has any significant connection to Lucania, Campania, or the Salento (all of which had significant Greek populations). Second, like the famous Italo-Greek saints of the Byzantine era, they are all monks, and several are associated with the foundation of monasteries.7 Philaretos the Younger joined the monastery of St Elias the Younger near Seminara in southern Calabria at some point in the 1040s; his vita was written soon after his death (probably in the late 1070s or 1080s) by a monk of the same monastery named Neilos.10 John Theristes was a hermit monk who became the inspiration for a monastery at Stilo in the southeast of Calabria that bears his name.11 Marina’s vita mentions that she too received monastic tonsure, though, as shall be seen below, her biography is light on verifiable details and may be fictional. Luke of Isola is something of an outlier since he is most famous for being the bishop of Isola Capo Rizzuto (and the only Italo-Greek bishop to be recognised as a saint). However, he also founded the nearby monastery of St Nicholas of Viteorito where he was eventually buried after his death; he may have originally been a monk as well.12 Bartholomew of Simeri founded arguably the two most important Italo-Greek monasteries of all, the Patiron of Rossano (ca. 1095) and the Holy Saviour of Messina (1130). Finally, Cyprian served as the saintly abbot of the monastery of St Nicholas of Calamizzi near Reggio around the turn of the thirteenth century, where his brief vita was composed soon after his death in 1215.13

These two common themes in the vitae – a shared geographical origin and monastic vocation – are not coincidental.

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