medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (1. July) is also the feast day of:
Nicasio (Chamuto) Burgio (d. 1187). Local tradition documented from at
least 1347 onward and primarily genealogical in origin makes N. a
Hospitaller from Sicily who died for his faith in the Holy Land; the
standard story today (which seems to have taken shape in the early modern
period) is that he accompanied the grand master of the Hospitallers, Roger
des Moulins, to Palestine, was at the battle of the Horns of Hattin (4.
July 1187), where Roger was killed, succeeded Roger on the field as captain
of the remaining Hospitallers, was taken captive, and became one of the
Hospitallers executed at Ptolemais (Acre) in the battle's aftermath. Roger
was actually killed at the battle of Cresson (1. May 1187; reliably
reported by two independent contemporary sources), leading one to wonder
when exactly, and under what conditions, N. actually met his end. The
family promoting this story -- called de Burgio after their castle of that
name near Agrigento -- claimed descent from the last Muslim emir of
Castrogiovanni (today's Enna), Chamut (Hammud), whose defeat by the Normans
in 1087 and subsequent conversion to Christianity is recorded by Geoffrey
Malaterra (for problems associated with genealogical claims regarding
people of this name, see Alex Metcalfe, _Muslims and Christians in Norman
Sicily_ [London: Routledge, 2003], pp. 32-33). In the fifteenth century
one of the de Burgio married the heiress of Caccamo in north central
Sicily, beginning the promotion here of his family saint (already locally
venerated in other parts of Sicily). In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries N. enjoyed an extensive cult centering on Caccamo. His
patrocinio is celebrated here on the last Sunday of August and on the
Monday following but his liturgical feast is today.
Two photographs of Caccamo are here, one showing the old town (which has
kept much of its thirteenth-century street plan) beneath the castle and the
other the castle itself:
http://www.netgalaxy.it/fotodicaccamo.htm
Some other photographs of Caccamo (mostly of early modern structures and
objects) are here. Note the early-fourteenth century arched bridge (a
relatively late example of a structural type whose most famous Sicilian
instance is the twelfth-century Ponte dell'Ammiraglio in Palermo):
http://www.siciliaedintorni.it/caccamo.htm
Some photographs of the Castello Peralta at Burgio (N.'s family home) are here:
http://www.comune.burgio.ag.it/castello.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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