of reading the lessons of Palm Sunday in Greek on a hill by the city.[1]
Across the water, Messina was long a great centre of Byzantinism. There is here a famous collegiate church, S Maria del Grafeo,[2] also called the Cattolica, which had a Byzantine chapter under a Protopapa.
In the fifteenth century the Byzantine rite was still flourishing at Messina. It was used in the Cattolica, several parish churches, and by the monks in the great monastery of St Saviour (p. 125), and others. In 1418 there were altogether fifty Byzantine churches in the diocese. But there was already lack of priests to serve them. In that year the Protopapa of the Cattolica, Nicholas di Benedetto, petitions the Archbishop that one priest be allowed to serve three, four, or even five churches.[3] A century later five Byzantine parishes are incorporated into one, St Nicholas.[4] After the Council of Trent five diocesan synods were held at Messina, in 1588, 1621, 1648, 1681, 1725. All make laws "pro Græcis orientalibus." In the case of the later synods these "Greeks" are Albanians. The Archbishop, Antony Lombardi (1585-1597), wrote to Cardinal Santoro, after the Synod of 1588, asking for instructions about the "Greeks" of his diocese. They are, apparently, new refugees from the Levant, and have clearly a schismatical spirit. They refuse to make a profession of faith in the terms of Gregory XIII's form; they will not accept Lombardi's chrism, but have their own from the East (probably from a schismatical bishop); their clergy go off to the East to be ordained without dimissorial letters; their priests confirm immediately after baptism, they will not fast on Saturday, and, in mixed marriages, they make all the children "Greeks." Some of Lombardi's questions are about matters of mere rite; yet from the whole letter one can see that these people are a great nuisance to him. Santoro's answer is admirable. He explains all the questions of rite with judgement and learning, quoting Fathers and liturgical authorities. This letter alone is enough to show
- ↑ Ughelli, ix, 285-314; Rodotà, i, 424-430.
- ↑ "Grafeo" for γραφεῖον or γραφή. The local legend is that our Lady sent a letter to the people of Messina, by St Paul, promising them her protection. This letter is kept in the archive of the cathedral. Really, it was the name of the church that suggested to Constantine Laskaris to forge this letter in 1467, when he was professor of Greek at Messina. Its text will be found in Henry Swinburne, "Travels in the Two Sicilies" (London, 1783-1785), ii, 391. It is a poor forgery. The real reason of the name "Grafeo" seems unknown.
- ↑ "Roma e l'Oriente," viii (1914), 341-342.
- ↑ Ibid., n. 2.
