ABSTRACT
Book Title – Greek Monasticism in Southern Italy: The Life of Neilos in Context (edited by Barbara Crostini and Ines Angeli Murzaku)
Chapter Number & Title – Chapter 6 : Historical Echoes in Italo-Greek Hagiographies of the Norman Age (by Gioacchino Strano)
Hagiographical works are an important testimony to the vitality and persistence of the Byzantine element in Norman Calabria: the saints of this period live in the Greek sphere, but they interact with the new powerful lords in Southern Italy. Bartholomew of Simeri, in fact, is protected by the Normans, but he went to Constantinople, welcomed by the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus and his court. Luke, Bishop of Isola Capo Rizzuto, argues with the Latins about the use of unleavened bread and the administering of baptism, a sign that the coexistence of the two components, the Greek and the Latin, was not always peaceful and without conflict. Cyprian of Calamizzi had medical skills and enjoyed the protection of the Latin hierarchy of Reggio Calabria.
