San Filippo di Fragalà

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San Filippo di Fragalà , also San Filippo di Demenna, was a Greek monastery in Val Demone in the municipality of Frazzanò . It existed since the late 11th century and was abolished in 1866.

View of the apse

The monastery already existed during the time of the Arab rule over Sicily and, like many other Greek monasteries in this area, was closely linked to the family of the founder. The so-called wills of Abbot Gregory of 1096 and 1105 contain brief references to the time before the arrival of the Normans, as well as the typicon for the monastery and provisions on the succession, for whom a nephew of Gregory was initially intended, but who was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and did not seem to return. Gregory succeeded in winning protection and assistance from the Count of Sicily and his court. At the same time he had good relations with the Greek episcopate of Calabria, because the bishop Luke of Isola wrote the wills for Gregory.

The support by the Norman rulers since Roger I attests to numerous, mostly Greek documents, not always handed down in harmless versions, which because of the relative independence did not reach the archives of S. Salvatore, but are in Palermo. When the Archimandrite of Messina was founded by Roger II , San Filippo was one of the autocephalous monasteries that were still run by their own abbot ( hegumenos ), but were subject to the spiritual supervision of the Archimandrite . Minutes of some of the visitations by the Archimandrite have been preserved that provide important information about the economic and cultural situation in Fragalà. Due to the gaps in the documentary tradition, the list of monastery rulers always shows larger gaps in time, which do not necessarily indicate vacancies .

In addition to property on the Madonie , i.e. in the immediate vicinity of the monastery, properties can be found in the area of Centuripe : Centorbi is a focus of the Greek-speaking population and home to several Greek functionaries of the Norman court.

Rodrigo Borgia as Cardinal Bishop of Ostia was for a time Commendatar of the monastery. Innocent VIII confirmed the subordination to the Grande Ospedale Nuovo in Palermo, which was however obliged to ensure the maintenance of the Greek rite in the monastery.

The current structure of the monastery is largely based on measures taken in the 15th to 18th centuries.

Sources and literature

  • Giuseppe Silvestri: Tabulario di S. Filippo di Fragalà e Santa Maria di Maniaci. Part 1: Pergamene latine (= Documenti per servire alla storia di Sicilia. Series 1, 11, ZDB -ID 431744-0 ). sn, Palermo 1887, ( digitized version ).
  • Mario Scaduto: Il monachismo basiliano nella Sicilia medievale. Rinascita e decadenza, sec. XI-XIV (= Storia e letteratura. 18, ZDB ID 847362-6 ). Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 1947, pp. 102-116 and more often; Additions and corrections in the reprint Rome 1982 on pp. 401–404.
  • Vera von Falkenhausen : The wills of Abbot Gregory of San Filippo di Fragalà. In: Cyril Mango, Omeljan Pritsak , Uliana M. Pasicznyk (eds.): OKEANOS. Essays presented to Ihor Ševčenko on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students (= Harvard Ukrainian Studies. Vol. 7, ISSN  0363-5570 ). Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Cambridge MA 1983, 174-195, JSTOR 41036091 .
  • Vera von Falkenhausen: The Greek Presence in Norman Sicily: The Contribution of Archival Material. In: Graham A. Loud, Alex Metcalfe (Ed.): The Society of Norman Italy (= The Medieval Mediterranean. 38). Brill, Leiden et al. 2002, ISBN 90-04-12541-8 , pp. 253-287.
  • Vera von Falkenhausen: S. Filippo di Fragalà. Storia di un monastero greco in Sicilia (secc. XI - XV) . In: Silvia Pedone - Andrea Paribene (ed.): "Di Bisanzio dirai ciò che è passato, ciò che passa e che sarà." Scritti in onore di Alessandra Guiglia. Bardi Edizioni, Roma 2018, pp. 707–735.
  • Ewald Kislinger : Un iscrizione a graffito nel monastero San Filippo di Fragalà (ME) . In: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies 51 (2001) pp. 373–383.
  • Ewald Kislinger: Regional history as a source problem. The Chronicle of Monembasia and the Sicilian Demenna. A historical-topographical study ( VTIB 8). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2001, v. a. Pp. 140-146, 148-151. ISBN 3-7001-3001-5 .
  • Shara Pirrotti: Il Monastero di San Filippo di Fragalà (Secoli XI-XV). Organizazione dello spazio, attività produttive, rapporti con il potere, cultura. Officina di Studi Medievali, Palermo 2008, ISBN 88-88615-89-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The delivery of the Tabulario by S. Filippo and other Messinese funds in the Palermo State Archives, requested by the Messina State Archives, was dealt with and rejected in the Consiglio Superiore degli Archivi on June 19, 1952 ( Opinion of the Soprintendente of Palermo  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wwwdb.archivi.beniculturali.it  
  2. ↑ Falkenhausen: S. Filippo di Fragalà pp. 726–728 gives a directory up to 1453.

Web links

Commons : San Filippo di Fragalà  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 38 ° 3 ′ 28.8 "  N , 14 ° 44 ′ 41.3"  E