Philagathos by Cerami

Philagathos von Cerami († soon after 1189 ) was a Greek monk and preacher in southern Italy.

Born in southern Italy and baptized in the name of Philippos, perhaps trained in Constantinople, he became a monk under the name of Philagathos in the monastery of S. Maria Hodogetria (Νέα ΄Οδηγήτρια, Patìr, Patirion) near Rossano, renovated by Bartholomaios von Simeri († 1130) .

Philagathos made a name for himself in the Norman Empire primarily as a preacher, preaching in Reggio, Taormina, Messina and Palermo, among others. A collection of his sermons was rearranged around 1250 by an unnamed person in Constantinople according to the end of the church year and distributed under the name of an unhistorical Kerameus of Taormina . In this form, the “Italian-Greek homilar” (A. Ehrhard) achieved widespread use.

In old age Philagathos wrote an interpretation of the Aithiopiká of Heliodorus .

literature

• Albert Ehrhard: Tradition and existence of the hagiographic and homiletic literature of the Greek Church: from the beginnings to the end of the 16th century . Part 1. The Tradition, Vol. 3 (Texts and Investigations Vol. 52.1). Leipzig 1939/43, 631–681.
• Giuseppe Rossi-Taibbi: Sulla tradizione manoscritta dell'omiliario di Filagato di Cerami . Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, Palermo 1965.
• Giuseppe Rossi-Taibbi: Filagato da Cerami. Omelie per i vangeli domenicali e le fixed di tutto l'anno. Omelie per le fixed fisse. Istituto siciliano di studi bizantini e Neoellenici, Palermo 1969.
• Mircea Graţian Duluş: Allegorizing love in twelfth-century Sicily: Philagathos of Cerami, Heliodorus' Aethiopica, and the Christian tradition . In: Annual of medieval studies at Central European University Budapest 14 (2008) 47–64.
• Mircea Graţian Duluş: Rhetoric, Exegesis and Florilegic Structure in Philagathos of Cerami , Diss. Central European University, Budapest (2017).