all over Southern Italy and Sicily. The Norman kings easily gave the wilder and more desert parts of their kingdom to monks to cultivate.[1] It was, however, the general rule that Byzantine monasteries were subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinaries.[2] There were no Stauropegia in Italy after the Norman conquest.
One of the great centres of Italo-Greek monasticism was Rossano in Calabria. St Neilos the Younger, founder of Grottaferrata, came from Rossano. About a century later another St Neilos founded the famous monastery S Maria del Patire outside the city (on a mountain by the road to Corigliano) in 1090. Count Roger I of Sicily (1072-1101) built a great part of the church, cloisters, and so on, and gave rich presents, ornaments and endowments.[3] Then Constance, daughter of Roger II and wife of the Emperor Henry VI, took it under her protection.[4] In 1198 Innocent III (1198-1216) in a Bull counts up its domains and riches.[5] So it became one of the most powerful and splendid religious houses in all Italy. The Archimandrite of S Maria del Patire was almost as great a person as his brother of Messina. But after the Council of Florence (1439), as part of the general latinizing policy of the Archbishop Matthew Saraceni (p. 109), the monastery became Roman and Benedictine. Its name is curious. What does "del Patire" mean? In the first documents it is called "S Maria Hodegetria."[6] This title of our Lady occurs often in the Byzantine rite. It means "Guide of the Way."[7] It is first the name of a famous picture of her at Constantinople, painted, naturally, by St Luke. This picture was placed in a church at Constantinople by the Empress Pulcheria (450-457). The usual explanation of the title is that generals, before setting out to war, went to pray before this picture, asking the blessed Virgin to guide them on their journey.[8] In imitation of this
- ↑ A long list of Italo-Greek monasteries, with an account of their foundation and history, is in Rodotà, vol. ii, chap. xi, pp. 176-224.
- ↑ Rodotà, ii, p. 90, where documents and proofs are quoted.
- ↑ Ughelli, "Italia sacra," ix, 291-292, quotes two diplomas of Roger II, 1104 and 1122.
- ↑ Ibid., ix, 295.
- ↑ Ibid., ix, 295-297.
- ↑ So in Roger II's diplomas.
- ↑ Ὀδηγήτρια, from ὁδηγός. In Italian this is abbreviated into "S. Maria de Itria." For an account of the philological process by which this form is attained see "Roma e l'Oriente," ix (1915), 31, n. 1.
- ↑ See Nilles, "Kalend. Man." (2nd edition, Innsbruck, 1897), ii, 163-164; Ducange, "Glossarium ad Script. med. et inf. Lat." s.v. Hodegitria (ed. Henschel-Lavre, Niort, 1885, iv, 211) attributes the word to the return of Michael VIII to Constantinople in 1261, after the expulsion of the Franks.
