We cannot say how or when this earlier Latin influence began. It is tempting to ascribe it to the Lombards. Yet it was there before the Lombards arrived. The Latin influence was less in Sicily. There were Romans in Sicily who spoke Latin before Christianity was preached there. There were Latin priests and bishops in the island who celebrated their rites in Latin from a very early date; yet, on the whole, Sicily was more Greek than the mainland. Its connection with the East and with Constantinople was closer. Till the Moslems came and swept nearly all the Christian Church away, we may take it that Christianity in Sicily was mainly Greek.
In the time of St Leo I (440-461) the Sicilian bishops, though they had been ordained at Rome, follow the custom of Constantinople and the East in at least one important detail. They baptize, not at Easter, according to the Roman rule, but at the Epiphany. St Leo reproaches them for this and says: "You would not have fallen into this fault if you had taken the rule of your observance from that place where you received the honour of consecration; if the See of blessed Peter, which is the mother of your sacerdotal dignity, had been the teacher of your ecclesiastical custom."[1] Some writers see evidence here of the Roman rite in Sicily at that time.[2] It seems to me proof that, at least in this point, the Roman custom was not followed. St Gelasius I (492-496) writes a letter[3] to the bishops of Lucania, Bruttii,[4] and Sicily. In this are twenty-eight "capita" — that is, rules of Canon law which they are to observe. Many of these rules are about liturgical matters. As far as they go, they show the wish of the Pope that the bishops should conform to Roman customs. But they do not really prove much either way; and again they may perhaps be taken as evidence that hitherto such customs have not been observed. Cap. 10 says that the bishops are to baptize only at Easter and Pentecost, except in case of necessity.[5] Cap. 11 that priests and deacons are to be ordained at the Ember days, and it supposes the Saturday fast.[6] These two letters (of Leo and Gelasius) were written to repair the damages to the Church of Lower Italy and Sicily done by the Vandals. St Gregory I (590-604) showed great zeal in arranging the affairs of these Churches. Many of his letters are directed to
