Saint Leoluca

Leoluca, also known as Leone Luca, Leo Luke of Corleone, or Luke of Sicily (c. 815 – c. 915) was the abbot and wonderworker of the monastery of Mount Mula in Calabria, and a founder of Italo-Greek monasticism in southern Italy. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Born in the Sicilian town of Corleone, he died about a hundred years later, after eighty years of monastic life, in Monteleone Calabro, now Vibo Valentia in Calabria. Today he is a patron saint of both towns, and his feast day is celebrated on 1 March. In 2006 Leoluca's relics were found in the municipality of San Gregorio d'Ippona, about 2 km southeast of the city of Vibo Valentia. The text of the Life of Leo Luke of Corleone was published in 1657 in the Sicilian martyrology of Jesuit Ottavio Gaetani ("Vitae Sanctorum Siculorum"). He was said to have derived it from three manuscripts discovered in Sicily: one from Palermo, another from Mazara and a third from Corleone. Later, the Bollandists published another Life, in Latin, found in the library of Joseph Acosta. None of the Latin manuscripts of the hagiography of Leo Luke refer to an original Greek source. However the presence of Greek anthroponyms (such as Leone, Teotiste, Christopher, Teodoro, Eutimio) may postulate an original source in Greek. The hagiography was likely composed immediately after the death of Leoluca in Calabria, but may have been passed down orally and then in writing at a later date and in another place. Leoluca was born in Corleone, Sicily in the 9th century AD (c.815 to 818 AD), on the eve of the Saracen invasion of Sicily. His parents Leo and Theoktiste baptized him Leo, in honour of his father. They were a pious and wealthy family who raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He was orphaned at an early age when his parents died, and devoted himself to managing the estate and supervising the herds as a shepherd.