ON ST. MAXIMUS, BISHOP, AT TAORMINA IN SICILY.
First Century.
CommentaryMaximus, Bishop of Taormina in Sicily (St.)
[1] Taormina (Tauromenium), which is also called Tauromenia and more commonly Taurominium, in Greek Tauromenion and Tauromeneion, now commonly called Taormina by its inhabitants, is an ancient and celebrated city of Sicily, Taurominium was formerly an episcopal city. situated midway between Messana and Catana. It formerly had its own bishop, as is evident from the Register of St. Gregory the Great, of whom several letters to Secundinus, Bishop of Taormina, survive. And John the Deacon records St. Procopius, bishop of the same city, crowned with martyrdom in the year 909. Taormina now is subject to the Archbishop of Messana, as Fazellus testifies in his work on Sicilian affairs, decade 1, book 2. St. Pancratius is traditionally held to have been the first to occupy the see there, a disciple of the Prince of the Apostles, of whom we shall treat on the 3rd of April.
[2] The feast of St. Maximus, second bishop. St. Maximus succeeded him, whose feast is celebrated today, as Ferrarius writes in his General Catalogue of Saints in these words: "At Taormina in Sicily, St. Maximus, Bishop, ordained by St. Peter." Octavius Caietanus says the same in his Idea operis de Sanctis Siciliae. Concerning him, Metaphrastes writes on the 29th of June in the Commentary on the deeds of Sts. Peter and Paul: "And when he (Peter) had come to Taormina, he lodged with Pancratius, a most wise man. In that place, having instructed a certain Maximus in the catechesis, baptized him, and ordained him bishop, he sailed to Rome." We have not yet discovered anything further about him.