medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. February) is also the feast day of:
Luke of Messina (d. 1149). Today's less well known saint from the
Regno was a monk at what in the fist decades of the twelfth century was
the leading Greek-rite house in Roger II's domains, Bartholomew of
Simeri's Nea Hodegetria outside of Rossano in Calabria. At some time
before B.'s death in 1130 (after which his monastery would become known
in his honor as Agia Theotokos tou Patir (or, more simply, the
Patirion), Roger asked B. to direct the monastery he had since 1122
been building near the tip of the Lingua Phari ('Lighthouse Tongue'),
the curving spit of land that forms one side of Messina's harbor and
that suggested to ancient Greeks one of the city's earlier names,
Zankle ('Sickle'). B., who was getting on in years, declined but
proposed Luke instead. Roger seems to have accepted, for shortly
before 1130 L. crossed the Strait of Messina with a dozen other monks
and the material items (vessels, service books, etc.) required for
establishing a functioning monastery. They found no monks to greet
them at the still unfinished complex but settled in and began work at
what under L.'s direction and Roger's command would, from 1131 on, be
the mother house ('mandra') of many Greek monasteries in Sicily and of
a number in Calabria as well. There was already a small church here,
vowed by Roger I in gratitude for his conquest of Messina and dedicated
to the Holy Savior. The monastery took its name, and as San(tissimo)
Salvatore in/de Lingua Phari (or, latinizing the latter's Greek
equivalent, _in acroterio_), it became the island's leading exponent of
Greek-language religious culture.
L.'s founder's typikon for the monasteries under his jurisdiction gives
in its preface a brief but highly interesting account of the
establishment of San(tissimo) Salvatore in Lingua Phari. An annotated
English-language translation of this document is here:
http://tinyurl.com/o6shl
L.'s disciplinary typikon survives in a sixteenth-century Calabrian
translation written in the Greek alphabet at the monastery of San
Bartolomeo di Trigona outside of today's Sant'Eufemia d'Aspromonte
(RC). It is edited in Katherine Douramani, ed., _Il typikon del
monastero di S. Bartolomeo di Trigona_ (Roma: Pontificio Istituto
Orientale, 2003; Orientalia Christiana Analecta, no. 269), pp. 316-20.
San(tissmo) Salvatore in Lingua Phari's liturgical typikon was edited
in 1969 by Miguel Arranz, who thought its manuscript to be in L.'s own
hand (a view since questioned by others). See Arranz, ed., _Le typicon
du monastere du Saint-Sauveur a Messine, Codex Messinensis GR 115, A.
D. 1131_ (Roma: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1969; Orientalia
Christiana Analecta 185).
L.'s monastery on the Lingua Phari (now the Punta San Ranieri) was
confiscated in 1546 by Charles V, who converted it into a fort. An
explosion and fire in 1549 destroyed most of monastic structures; what
remained was removed or built over in what even today is a restricted-
access military site. A distance view of the harbor, with the Punta
San Ranieri to the right of center, is here:
http://www.cinoricci.it/girovela2004/percorso/messina/foto03g.jpg
Some closer views of the site itself:
http://www.ipaesaggi.it/Castelli/SSalvatore/SSalvatore3.htm
http://www.secapl.com/Italy/1005-Messina/DCP_1017s1280.jpg
http://www.ipaesaggi.it/Castelli/SSalvatore/SSalvatore1.htm
The inscription partly visible in those last views reads in full: VOS
ET IPSAM CIVITATEM BENEDICIMUS
According to Messinese legend, this is how in the year 42 the BVM ended
her letter to the faithful of the city already largely converted by St.
Paul. Not every port can display such an august paleochristian
endorsement.
When Charles V took over the monastery, the monks moved to new quarters
elsewhere in the city. This, presumably, is how the surviving
sculptural monuments of L.'s tenure as archimandrite escaped the
conflagration at the old site. These include both a baptismal font
bearing two inscriptions that together date the piece to 1135 and name
the sculptor, one Gandulphus, and L.'s sarcophagus (a re-used piece of
Roman-period manufacture) bearing a sixteen-verse funerary
inscription. Both are housed today in Messina's Museo Nazionale. I
couldn't quickly find Web-based views of either, but the inscriptions
are edited and translated in Andre Guillou, _Recueil des inscriptions
grecques medievales d'Italie_ (Rome: Ecole Francaise de Rome, 1996;
Collection de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome, no. 222), pp. 201-05 (nos.
189, 191) and photographically documented at G.'s plates 178 and 179.
Best,
John Dillon
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