|
Saint Leo of Catania, nicknamed the ''Thaumaturgus'' (May 709 – 20 February 789) was the fifteenth bishop of Catania, famed also for his love and care toward the poor. His feast day occurs on February 20,〔Great Synaxaristes: ''(Ὁ Ἅγιος Λέων ὁ Θαυματουργός Ἐπίσκοπος Κατάνης ).'' 20 Φεβρουαρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ. Retrieved: 2013-06-24.〕〔''(St Leo the Bishop of Catania in Sicily ).'' OCA - Lives of the Saints. Retrieved: 2013-06-24.〕 the day of his death in which he is venerated as a saint both by Roman Catholics and by the Orthodox Church. He lived in the lapse of time between the reigns of the Emperors Justinian II and Constantine IV. He struggled especially against the paganism and sorcery still prevalent in the Byzantine Sicily. He left the memory of prodigies and charitable deeds, an admirable apostolate that deserved him his Greek epithet. For the natives of Catania he was simply ''Leone " il Maraviglioso"'' (the ''Wonderworker'' or ''He who performs Miracles''). Catania dedicated to him a peripheral suburb built around the homonymous Catholic Parish but even the name of the sole Eastern Orthodox church of the city, harboured in a temple that still maintains the primal name of ''Saint Michael the Lesser'', restored recently and consecrated again to the purpose. He is, moreover, the patron saint of the Sicilian localities of Rometta, Longi and Sinagra. The hamlet of Saracena in Calabria celebrates him twice a year in spring and in late summer. ==Life== Leo was born at Ravenna and very young he became a Benedictine, then he moved and betook himself to Reggio Calabria in Southern Italy where the local bishop Cyril nominated him archdeacon. Thereat he stayed till his episcopal election for the vacant Diocese of Catania. A local legend asserts that the Catanians, who needed a new Bishop, had a collective dream wherein an Angel suggested them to search for the selected person in the Calabrian city of Reggio where a man in odour of sanctity lived in an hermitage. That stranger would have become the right guide to fill suchlike post. At first Leo was reluctant as he considered himself not worthy for this ordeal so he did not accept and decided to refute politely such summary acclaim. Afterwards, when the umpteen solicitations from Catania became doubtless and heartfelt, he persuaded at last. In fact on 765 he was appointed to rule over that Community of Christians. In the coming epoch, in every regions of the Byzantine Empire (of whom Catania with the entire Sicily was a dominion) began the fierce and unrestrainable destruction of the sacred icons, the so-called "iconoclasm", which Leo openly opposed to. Owing to his firmness, the Byzantine Governor of Sicily ordered his arrest, forcing him to leave Catania and find refuge on the Tyrrhenian territories of the island. He wandered for many years through the woody Nebrodian heights, in the whereabouts between Longi and Sinagra, protected by the people that recognized him as a fervent opposer of the Imperial power. He reached, during this long peregrination a place called Rometta. Here, on the Monti Peloritani backing Messina, he lived in a cave he hollowed out all by himself with his very hands and fingernails. Shortly after, when his persecution seemed to calm down he was able to come back to Catania where he repossessed his bishopric to keep on fighting with more strength than ever against the iconoclast laws and the new and growing gurgles of heresy. He died in Catania on 20 February 789. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saint Leo of Catania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|