medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Virtually nothing is known about St. Sabinus (in Greek: Savinos) of Catania, celebrated in Byzantine-Rite churches on 15. October, the day under which he is entered in the originally tenth-century Synaxary of Constantinople. He appears in the Bios of St. Leo of Catania (BHG 981, 981b) as the latter's predecessor in that see who retired and became an hermit. Since Leo's romance-like Bios is untrustworthy in many of its details, the possibility exists that bishop Sabinus is purely fictional. If he is not, there is still the problem of his dating. Traditionally, St. Leo (II) of Catania is dated to the later eighth century; those who accept this dating place Sabinus' death at ca. 760. On the other hand, the preponderance of modern students of early Byzantine hagiography and prosopography who have confronted this matter treat Leo's highly fictionalized Bios as aimed at an audience several centuries later than its subject and identify him with the later sixth-century bishop of Catania of the same name, Leo (I). On this view, his predecessor Sabinus (again assuming that he's not wholly fictional) is also to be dated to the later sixth century. Unlike Leo of Catania, Sabinus of Catania has yet to grace the pages of the Roman Martyrology. The archdiocese of Catania appears not to number him among its saints.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Sabinus of Catania
a) as depicted in the later tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, p. 116):
http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1613/0138
http://tinyurl.com/grywf6q
b) as depicted (at left; at right, the prophet Hosea) in an October calendar portrait in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/o6g63hy
Best,
John Dillon
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