medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (2. January) is also the feast day of:
Sylvester of Troina (d. 1072? or 1164? or 1185?). Like Lawrence of
Frazzano' (30 December), Conus or Cono of Naso (a.k.a. Conon or Cono of
Nesi; 28. March), and Nicholas Politi (blessed; 17. August), S. is a
poorly documented Greek saint from insular Sicily during or, on one
view, just before its period of Norman and Swabian rule.
The basic details of S.'s life as these are usually recounted come from
the early modern hagiographer Filippo Ferrari's summary, in his
_Catalogus sanctorum Italiae_, of information derived from the office
for S. at Troina. According to this (see _Acta Sanctorum_, ed.
Carnandet, Januar. tom. I., pp. 124-25), S. was born at Troina, entered
the nearby monastery of St. Michael the Archangel, and quickly
outstripped his fellow monks in self-denial and general severity of
lifestyle. Among his miracles perhaps the most famous is his one-day,
round-trip journey by foot in the middle of winter from Troina to
Catania in order to pray at the tomb of saint Agatha on her feast (an
apparently related miracle involving a Greek monk from Troina occurs in
abbot-bishop Maurice's account of Agatha's translation from
Constantinople; see _Acta Sanctorum_, ed. cit., Feb. tom. I., p. 647).
Returning via Palermo from a trip to Rome, S. is said to have predicted,
and by his prayers to have obtained, the recovery to good health of the
future king William II. An attempt to make him abbot of his monastery
caused him to leave the premises and to become a hermit in the woods not
far from Troina, where he died, according to one calculation, in 1185.
An inventio of S.'s allegedly intact remains occurred in the early
fifteenth century, miracles ensued, his cult was confirmed by Julius
III, and, it is said, he now reposes in the seventeenth-century church
in Troina dedicated to him, shown here:
http://utenti.lycos.it/pagana/hpbimg/san_silvestro.jpg
More precisely, he is thought to repose within this church in an effigy
tomb attributed either to the Palermitan sculptor Antonello Gagini (d.
1536) or to his son Gian Domenico Gagini:
http://www.stazzone.it/troina/engyon/storia/images/tomba_san_silvestro.jpg
For further discussion, see Alessandro Galuzzi, "Silvestro di Troina,
santo", in _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 11 (1968), cols. 1074-75, where,
however, Pertusi's death date for S. is erroneously given as 1172 (P.,
following the _Akolouthia tou hosiou patros hemon Silvestrou tou neou
poleos Trounes prostatou_ published in 1626, moved S. back a century and
dated his death to 1072, thus making S.'s Norman connections in the
standard account an exercise in historical appropriation by the Latin
church). A sceptic might wonder whether S.'s legend is not essentially
a fifteenth-century construct, with his very name perhaps deriving from
the woodland location in which his remains are said to have been found.
Probably because the date of S.'s death was already unknown when the
Latin church in Sicily adopted him, this Basilian monk is celebrated
liturgically on the feast of Basil the Great. His monastery of St.
Michael the Archangel, re-established by Roger I as part of the
post-conquest systematization of the Basilian "order" within his domains
and later (like so many other Greek houses in Sicily) made Benedictine,
was abandoned as ruinous in 1700. A view of the remains (called San
Michele Arcangelo _vecchio_ to distinguish it from its successor -- now
also a ruin) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/8bzff
Troina, a north-central Sicilian hill town whose population at the time
was already partly Greek-rite Christian, was taken by Roger I in 1063,
served as his headquarters on the island, and was the seat of the
island's first Latin bishop (Roger's cousin, Robert de Grantmesnil).
Work on its cathedral (now much rebuilt) began in 1065; an adjacent
Norman defensive structure, since modified, now serves as its belltower:
http://www.apt-enna.com/immagini/Troina%20chiesa%20S.Nicola%20wl.jpg
closer views:
http://www.giuseppepagana.altervista.org/chiesa%20di%20s.nicolo'-troina.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/8c492
http://www.siciliaoggi.it/images/Enna/troina/images/normal/troina005.jpg
Side views, showing location of the cathedral:
http://www.siciliatourist.tv/troina/TROINA2.JPG
http://www.siciliatourist.tv/troina/TROINA6.JPG
A fairly detailed, Italian-language account of the cathedral is here:
http://tinyurl.com/cyohd
A view of the upper part of Troina, with the cathedral on the left and
Mt. Etna in the background:
http://www.siciliaoggi.it/images/Enna/troina/images/normal/troina002.jpg
Best (e Buon San Silvestro di Troina),
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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