Attalus

ON SAINT ATTALUS, ABBOT,

OF THE ORDER OF SAINT BENEDICT, AT TAUROMENIUM IN SICILY.

ABOUT 800.

Attalus, Benedictine Abbot, at Tauromenium in Sicily (Saint)

G. H.

A Chronicle of a certain Benedictine monk, composed about the year of Christ 1483, is frequently recommended in the monastic history of Pietro Ricordati da Buggiano, published at Rome in 1575; where this author calls his Chronicle an ancient one, which was then preserved in the library of Constantine Cajetan, Abbot, and was used by this man's brother Octavius Cajetan, Memory in the Benedictine Chronicle, and in volume 2 of The Lives of the Sicilian Saints, page 32, brings forward these words from the said Chronicle: "Saint Attalus, Abbot of the monastery situated at Tauromenium in Sicily, whose birthday is solemnly observed on the third day before the Nones of April." and in the calendars of Cajetan, The same Cajetan in his Sicilian Martyrology on this day, when he had treated of Saint Pancratius, Bishop of Tauromenium, who suffered martyrdom, of whom we also have treated, adds: "At the same place, Saint Attalus, Abbot of the Order of Saint Benedict," and celebrates the same Saint Attalus in the alphabetical Index of Sicilian Saints; then in the topical Index of the Saints of Tauromenium; likewise in the Index of Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict; finally, in the chronological Index, he reports Saint Attalus with the Saints who flourished around the year 800: that is, before the year 828, when the African Saracens occupied Sicily, as the same Cajetan notes in volume 2 of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, cited page 32. Cajetan has been followed and of others by Ferrarius in his General Catalogue, Menard and Bucelin in their Benedictine Martyrologies. Would that that whole Benedictine Chronicle were extant in print; then we could more safely judge of its sincere truth.