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The hagiographic rhetorics of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century is little studied due to the lack of sources, with the exception of the hagiographic cycle of the mosaics of the cathedral of Monreale. Recently studied by Sulamith Brodbeck in a ponderous and magisterial monograph, two heuristic indications emerge: the already known medieval link between body and holiness; and the political-theological importance of the image of Saint Gerlando of Besançon, the first Norman bishop of the re-founded Church of Agrigento. The present study assumes these two principles to analyse the literary hagiographic sources of the saint, which in their oldest core remain the oldest agiological attestations of Norman Sicily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nel Seicento barocco di area cattolica, le restrizioni dell'Indice alla diffusione di testi biblici in volgare spinsero i predicatori a ricercare nuove forme di oratoria sacra. In ambito domenicano, la retorica del pulpito restò statica e ancorata alla ricca tradizione dell'Ordine. Fa eccezione fr. Maurizio De Gregorio da Cammarata, Sacrae Theologiae magister, letterato e noto collezionista, organizzatore a Napoli di una delle prime Wunderkammer d'Italia. Nel 1615, Fr. Maurizio diede alle stampe un trattato di retorica sacra: Il Condottiero dei Predicatori (1615), ripubblicato da un suo confratello nel 1627 e suddiviso in otto trattati. Il ritrovamento di un volume del Seicento, intitolato Trattato 9 de Condottiere dei Predicatori, fornisce l'opportunità di accostare ancora meglio il metodo formativo per predicatori di De Gregorio, fondato sulla divulgazione della Sacra Scrittura e su una tecnica retorica, che consiglia di comporre discorsi che si avvalgono del segno iconico e della parola, combinati insieme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saint Gerland of Besançon († 1100), patron of the diocese of Agrigento and Norman bishop, enjoys a fame almost exclusive to Agrigento. In his time, however, his sanctity was well known in Norman Sicily to the point of being portrayed in the mosaics of the cathedral of Monreal. Moreover, at Besançon, he was also magister scholarum and the corpus of works which circulated in medieval Europe under the name of Gerland, described by modern criticism as the Computist, could be ascribed to him. In this case, the bishop of Agrigento would have to be esteemed also for the value of his teaching within the debates of the eleventh century concerning the use of dialectic in theology. However, the saint's biography does not resolve all the doubts about this identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Byzantine Sicily is scantily represented in literary documents. To a certain extent Agrigento is an exception from such literary poverty since it numbers among its historical sources a pair of hagiographies datable between the seventh and eighth centuries: the-Passione di San Pellegrino and theVita di San Gregorio di Agrigento. The latter was written by Leonzio, priest and monk of San Saba, in Rome, and is a document which recalls the Byzantine city, not only on account of the deeds of the saint but also for some monumental aspects. For the historicity of these, it is certain that, before transferring to the City (of Rome), Leonzio undoubtedly stayed in Agrigento where, perhaps, he was born. The present study investigates the biography of San Gregorio, and in doing so acquires some significant data concerning the theological and spiritual culture of Leonzio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attribution to Metrofane of Izmir (Smirne) of the Commentary on Ecclesiastes, which for centuries had been known as the work of Saint Gregory of Agrigento, has overturned many historiographical conceptions on Late Antique and Byzantine Sicily. For early Christianity in Agrigento, this destitution of paternity has entailed the necessity of reviewing the succession of bishops of the Late Antique and Byzantine Age, as they have been known so far. This is the main point of this study, which also reassesses the results of philological and historical criticism on the antique hagiography regarding the bishops of Agrigento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]