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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (30. January) is also the feast day of: Peregrine (Peregrinos, Peregrinus, Pellegrino) of Triocala (1st cent., supposedly). If any faith is to be placed in his somewhat inventive Latin Passio (BHL 4909) and in his mention in the medieval Greek Encomium of St. Marcian of Syracuse (BHG 1030), the actual Peregrinus may have been an early martyr of Agrigento (Sicily), put to death during the Valerianic persecution. But these testimonies pale in comparison to the legend of P. of Triocala, venerated at Caltabellotta (AG) since -- it would seem -- at least the late 11th or 12th century (the 17th-century hermitage bearing P.'s name is built over the remains of a structure thought to be of the Norman period). According to this legend, preserved in an 18th-century manuscript whose Italian-language text appears to have been translated from a Latin original, P. was called from Leukas in Greece by St. Peter to preach in Sicily. Arriving at Triocala (generally assumed to be the pre-Arab-period predecessor of Caltabellotta, though the T. of the legend has also been interpreted as the Etnean town of Randazzo), P. immediately demonstrated his power by turning into stone the bread of a woman who had claimed not to have any to give him. Not long thereafter, he rescued a local boy from the clutches of a dragon whose lair was in a cave above the town. The dragon, recognizing P.'s superiority, fled to its cave, roaring terribly; P. pursued the beast, fixed its jaws open with his staff, and caused it to disappear into an abyss opening within the cave itself. The grateful townspeople swiftly accepted Christianity from P., who himself became a hermit, settling in a cave above the one the dragon had used and dying peacefully at threescore years and ten. P. has a secondary feast on the third Sunday in August (previously, 18. August) honoring him as Caltabellotta's patron. He also has a modern cult at Leukas. A color reproduction of one of the manuscript's illustrations and a somewhat cleaned up transcription of the Italian text (minus what's on the title page) are at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/3137/ For a discussion of the manuscript and a seemingly more faithful transcription see Angela Daneu Lattanzi, "Un manoscritto del secolo XVIII contenente la Vita di s. Pellegrino vescovo di Triocala," _Archivio storico siciliano_, 3a serie, 14 (1963), 17-66. This has black-and-white illustrations at the end showing some of the manuscript's illustrations (but not the one reproduced on the aforementioned website) and other early modern evidences of P.'s cult. A brief, Italian-language account of Caltabellotta's church and convent of San Pellegrino is here: http://www.caltabellotta.com/monumenti/sanpellegrino.asp and a series of galleries of views of the church and the "Hermitage" beneath it (including, in Galleria 5, views of the "Grotta del Drago") begins here: http://www.caltabellotta.com/images/monumenti/c_sanpell/galleria01.htm There are discussions by Agostino Amore in the _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 10 (1968), cols. 459-60, s.v. "Pellegrino, santo, martire di Agrigento(?)", with bibliography, and by Raimondo Lentini at the _Santi Beati_ site: http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/91485 Best, John Dillon (an older post considerably revised) PS: Okay, so that was only marginally medieval. By way of compensation, herewith two views of the surviving gate tower of the Norman castle of Caltabellotta, famous in Sicilian history as 1) the last refuge of William III and of his mother, the queen regent Sibylla, in late 1194 when Henry VI was completing his conquest of the kingdom and 2) the venue for the signing, in 1302, of the treaty that ended the War of the Vespers and that established, however provisionally, the existence of two kingdoms of Sicily where before there had been but one: http://www.castelli-sicilia.com/photo/caltabellotta_castello.jpg http://www.caltabellotta.net/epoca_img/epoca5/epoc04.jpg The church in the background of that second view is Caltabellotta's originally 12th-century Chiesa Matrice (Santa Maria Assunta). A few further views follow: http://www.caltabellotta.com/images/attualita/2005-02-01/001.jpg http://www.guideiacono.it/articoli/Caltabellotta/ch.madre5.jpg http://sicilyweb.com/foto/146/146-05-12-22-5917.jpg http://tinyurl.com/7a8ek http://www.guideiacono.it/articoli/Caltabellotta/ch.madre4.jpg http://www.guideiacono.it/articoli/Caltabellotta/ch.madre2.jpg ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html