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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (30. January) is also, or at least was until fairly recently, the feast day of: Peregrinus of Triocala (?). P. (Italian: Pellegrino) is the patron saint and legendary protobishop of Caltabellotta (AG) in southwestern Sicily. The seventeenth-century hermitage there that bears P.'s name is built over the remains of a structure thought to be of the Norman period. Whether the latter had any connection with his cult is unknown. P.'s accomplishments are preserved in an eighteenth-century manuscript whose Italian-language text appears to have been translated from a Latin original. According to this text, P. was called from Leukas in Greece by St. Peter to preach in Sicily. Not long after his arrival at Triocala (generally assumed to be the pre-Arab-period predecessor of Caltabellotta) P. rescued a local boy from the clutches of a dragon whose lair was in a cave above the town. Recognizing P.'s superiority, the dragon 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. None of the material evidence for P.'s cult would appear to antedate the sixteenth century. P., who has never graced the pages of the RM, is probably an offshoot of the Pereginus of relatively nearby Agrigento. The latter, supposedly martyred under Valerian (253-260), is attested by a somewhat inventive Latin Passio (BHL 4909) and by a mention in the medieval Greek Encomium of St. Marcian of Syracuse (BHG 1030). In these views the Eremo di San Pellegrino is at center left; next to it is the former monastery named for him: http://gwpageperso.free.fr/sicile/sicile7a.htm http://www.caltabellotta.com/dispimage.asp?id=359 Here's a view of the Eremo's facade: http://tinyurl.com/2p2ode From within one may enter two grottoes (ancient mine shafts?) once used as chapels. The upper one is now called the Grotta di San Pellegrino and the lower one is now called the Grotta del Dragone. The former is shown here: http://www.caltabellottanet.it/images/eremogrosan1.JPG and letter is shown here: http://www.caltabellotta.com/images/storia/image006.jpg http://www.caltabellotta.net/galleria_06/sanpell1/07.JPG A text of P.'s Vita is here: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/3137/index.html That presentation omits all but one of the the manuscript's illustrations. Here's a reduced, black-and-white image of the manuscript's visualization of P. rescuing the boy from the dragon: http://tinyurl.com/yu7dhf A notice by Raimondo Lentini added to the Santi Beati site on 24. March 2003 asserts that P. is celebrated on 30. January and on 18. August. The latter _festa_ is a patronal celebration that now takes place on the third Sunday in August; in Lentini's view, this may have originated as a translation feast. I could find no confirmation either in the online _Calendario liturgico delle chiese in Sicilia_ or on the website of the diocese of Agrigento that P. is celebrated liturgically on either day. According to van Bolland, both celebrations were observed at Caltabellotta at the time of his writing (earlier seventeenth century; his sources were the printed collections of Gaetani and Ferrari) but only that in January was liturgical in nature. Van Bolland also reports that a shoulder bone believed to be that of P. was carried in procession on both days; I've not seen it in photographs of recent processions, in which a modern statue of P. is carried up to the Eremo. Best, John Dillon (matter from last year's post, revised) ********************************************************************** 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