_-_Capela_Palatina_-_Palermo_-_Italy_2015.JPG)
Mosaico
raffigurante San Cataldo nella Cappella Palatina di Palermo
Saint Catalde
Évêque de
Tarente (VIIe siècle)
Cataldo ou Cartault...
Moine irlandais, il dirigea pendant plusieurs années une école monastique dans son pays. Parti en pèlerinage à Jérusalem, comme tant d'autres à cette époque, il s'arrêta sur le chemin du retour pour convertir à la foi chrétienne la population de la région de Tarente, revenue au paganisme après avoir été, selon la tradition, convertie par saint Pierre lui-même.
...On note un buste de saint Cartault, évêque de Tarente, compagnon de saint Savinien, martyr... (Histoire des communes de l'Yonne - Maurice Pignard-Péguet livre III - 1913 - Bibliothèque numérique icaunaise)
...Dilo fut le siège d'un monastère de Prémontrés fondé en 1135... (La chapelle Saint Cartault à Dilo - diocèse de Sens-Auxerre)
...L'église a été restaurée en 2002... (Tourisme Yonne)
...Le 6 août 1692, la Chapelle Saint Cartault est solennellement bénite et livrée au culte. Voûtée de lambris, longue d'environ 8x5m, ouverte à l'est par deux fenêtres cette Chapelle demeurera l'église paroissiale du petit village desservi par les Prémontrés... Depuis 300 ans, cette Chapelle réservée aux paroissiens de Dilo, possède toujours son maître-autel ionique et le buste de son saint patron: St Cartault. (Eglise Saint Cartault de Dilo)
Un internaute nous signale: saint Cartault, ami de saint Patrick -
Vénéré à Sens où lui était consacrée une ancienne paroisse; vocable à Dilo
(Yonne); sans doute des transferts de reliques. Il serait, avec Vincent,
patron des vignerons en Auxerrois
À Tarente en Apulie, vers
le VIe siècle, saint Catalde, moine pèlerin, venu, dit-on, d'Irlande, et
considéré comme évêque de cette ville.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/6835/Saint-Catalde.html
Esmerveillable vision de Catalde Evesque de Tarente. Histoires prodigieuses
Prophéties
Saint Catalde, évêque de Tarente prédit :
« Un roi sortira de l’extraction et tige du lys très illustre, ayant le front
élevé, les sourcils hauts, les yeux longs et le nez aquilin.
Il rassemblera de grandes armées, chassera les tyrans de son royaume, qui
fuiront devant sa face pour se cacher dans les montagnes et les cavernes ; car
tout aussi que l’épouse est jointe à son époux, la justice sera associée avec
lui.
Jusqu’aux 40 ans de son âge, il fera la guerre avec contre les Chrétiens
(hérétiques) puis subjuguera les Anglais et autres insulaires.
Les rois chrétiens lui rendront hommage.
Après quoi, il passera la mer avec des armées très nombreuses, entrera dans la
Grèce et sera nommé Roi des Grecs.
Il subjuguera ensuite les Colchiens, Chypriens, Turcs et Barbares.
Il fera un édit que quiconque n’adorera le Crucifié sera mis à mort.
Il n’y aura roi qui puisse lui résister, d’autant que le bras du Seigneur sera
avec lui et aura domination sur toute la terre. Cela fait, il donnera repos aux
Chrétiens et à son peuple.
Puis, entrant à Jérusalem et étant monté sur le mont des oliviers, il y fera
ses prières à Dieu. Et, ayant ôté sa couronne de dessus sa tête et rendu grâce
à Dieu le Père, Dieu le Fils et Dieu le Saint-Esprit, avec des signes
admirables, il rendra son âme à Dieu. »
SOURCE : http://dafeizhontadoukoz.org/Prophetie-de-Saint-Catalde.htm
_18_10_2020_02.jpg)
San
Cataldo, statua lignea.
Also
known as
Catald of Tarentum
Catald of Rachau
Cataldus of…
Cathal of…
Cattaldo of…
Cathaluds of…
Cathaldus of…
Cataldo of…
Profile
Student at
the monastic school of Lismore, Waterford under Saint Carthage.
Later a teacher there,
and then headmaster. Pilgrim to
the Holy Land. On his way home a storm shipwrecked him
in Taranto, Italy.
As he recovered, his holiness was such that he was chosen by the people to be
their bishop.
He lived the rest of his life in the region, teaching and
caring for his parishioners. There are towns in Sicily and
southern Italy named
for him.
Born
c.685 in Taranto, Italy of
natural causes
relics discovered
centuries after his death during
a renovation of the cathedral following
its damage by Saracens in 927
relics translated
on 10
May 1017
remarkable cures reported
almost immediately at his new tomb
in Italy
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Saint
Cataldus, Known as Cathal or San Cataldo, by A Pilgrim
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our
Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
sitios
en español
Martirologio
Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
“Saint Catald of
Taranto“. CatholicSaints.Info. 10 September 2022. Web. 10 May 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-catald-of-taranto/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-catald-of-taranto/
_18_10_2020_03.jpg)
CATALDUS (Saint)
Bishop (May 10) (7th century) The most illustrious of the several Irish Saints
of that name. Born in Munster he became the disciple and successor of Saint
Carthage in the famous School of Lismore. He is believed to have been
consecrated a Bishop in Ireland. But on his return from a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, the people of Taranto in Southern Italy constrained him to accept
the government of their Church. Many miracles are attributed to his intercession.
He flourished early in the seventh century.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Cataldus”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 1
October 2012.
Web. 9 May 2019. <http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-cataldus/>
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-cataldus/
Statue of St Cataldus in front of the Church of St Catald in Rabat, Malta
Statue
of St Cataldus in front of the Church of St Catald in Rabat, Malta
May 11 – St Cathal of
Taranto (7th-8th century)
11 May, 2012
Summary: St Cathal
of Taranto. The saint’s cult is centred in the city of Taranto, just
under the heel of Italy, where the cathedral is named San Cataldo after
him. (See image). He is honoured in other places in South Italy, Sicily and
Malta. Recently there has been a link between him and the village of Shanrahan
in Clogheen
parish,south Tipperary.Ireland. his patronage is invoked against
plagues, drought and storms.
Patrick Duffy researches
the pieces of his story.
Tradition that he was Bishop at Taranto
The tradition at Taranto is that Cathal came from the monastery school at
Lismore, Co Waterford, Ireland, and arrived in this city en route to or from
the Holy Land and was chosen as its bishop. His cult certainly goes back to
1071 when his relics were found in a coffin at Taranto with a pastoral staff of
Irish workmanship with the inscription Cathaldus Rachau. He is the titular
of the cathedral there and the principal patron saint of the diocese
Spread to Sicily and Beyond
The Benedictines of the Norman kingdom of Sicily and south Italy inspired
devotion to him. He appears in mosaics in Palermo and in the basilica of
Monreale. There is even a painting of him on one of the pillars in the Church
of the Nativity at Bethlehem commissioned by the Norman archbishop Drogo of
Taranto and approved by the Norman patriarch Raoul of Jerusalem. The earliest
account of his life was written by an Italian monk Petrus de Natalibus in 1382.
Where in Ireland?
Efforts to identify a diocese of Rachau have suggested Shanrahan or Rachaa in Co Tipperary (See the website, where the links between Shanrahan and Cathaldus are explored). Another suggestion is Rahan in Co Offaly with the hypothesis that he was a missionary from an Irish monastic centre on the continent. The first interest taken in this saint in Ireland was in 1746, when he was linked with a claim that the diocese of Cashel should take precedence over the diocese of Armagh!
In 1963, Fr. Frank Mackin, a Jesuit priest from Boston, came to Clogheen to
research his family history. Following that visit, he went to Taranto to
research the life of Saint Cathaldus. He was amazed that there was neither a
statue nor a stained glass window commemorating the Irish Saint in the Clogheen
Church even though it was obvious from the writings of the historian Fr.
Everard – Clogheen’s Parish priest in the early years of the twentieth century
– and from local tradition, that Clogheen people were aware of the historic
link between Taranto and Shanrahan. He resolved to do something about it.
In 1986 the Mackin family
of America, Ireland and Australia installed a beautiful stained glass window in
St. Mary’s Catholic Church, on Clogheen’s Main Street. The window, on the west
wall of the church, depicts the life of St. Cathaldus in Shanrahan, his journey
to the Holy Land and his being shipwrecked off the coast of Southern Italy.
SOURCE : https://www.catholicireland.net/saintoftheday/st-cathal-of-taranto-7th-8th-century/
Catald of Taranto B (RM)
(also known as Cataldus,
Cathaluds, Cattaldo, Cathal)
Born in Munster, Ireland,
7th century. Saint Cataldus was a pupil, then the headmaster of the monastic
school of Lismore in Waterford after the death of its founder, Saint Carthage.
Upon his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was shipwrecked at Taranto
in southern Italy and chosen by the people as their bishop. He is the titular
of Taranto's cathedral and the principal patron of the diocese. This
epitaph if given under an image of Saint Catald in Rome:
Me tulit Hiberne, Solyme
traxere, Tarentum Nunc tenet: huic ritus, dogmata, jura dedi.
Which has been loosely
translated as:
Hibernia gave me birth:
thence wafted over, I sought the sacred Solymean shore. To thee Tarentum, holy
rites I gave, Precept divine; and thou to me a grave.
It is odd that an
Irishman, should be so honored throughout Italy, Malta, and France, but have
almost no recognition in his homeland. His Irish origins were discovered only
two or three centuries after his death, when his relic were recovered during
the renovation of the cathedral of Taranto. A small golden cross, of 7th- or
8th- century Irish workmanship, was with the relics. Further investigations
identified him with Cathal, the teacher of Lismore.
Veneration to Catald
spread, especially in southern Italy, after the May 10, 1017, translation of
his relics when the cathedral was being rebuilt following its destruction at
the hands of Saracens in 927. Four remarkable cures occurred as the relics were
moved to the new cathedral. When his coffin was open at that time, a pastoral
staff of Irish workmanship was found with the inscription Cathaldus Rachau.
There is a town of San Cataldo in Sicily and another on the southeast coast of
Italy (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Farmer, Husenbeth, Kenney, Montague, Neeson,
Tommasini).
Saint Catald is depicted
in art as an early Christian bishop with a miter and pallium in a 12th century
mosaic at Palermo (Roeder). He is the subject of a painting on the 8th pillar
of the nave on the left in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem (D'Arcy,
Montague). There are also 12th-century mosaics in Palermo and Monreale
depicting the saint (Farmer). Catald is invoked against plagues, drought, and
storms (Farmer).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0510.shtml
Taranto
DIOCESE OF TARANTO
(TARENTINA)
Diocese in
southern Italy,
on a bay in the Gulf of Taranto. The ancient city was situated on an island,
joined by two bridges with the mainland, where the new city is built. Two
islets, S. Pietro and S. Paolo, protect the bay (Mar grande), the commercial
port, while the old city forms another bay (Mar piccolo), a military port next
in strategic importance to Spezzia; the coast and islets are therefore very
strongly fortified. The city has a large export trade and extensive works
connected with the construction of warships, while the fishing industry,
especially in the Mar piccolo, is flourishing. The cathedraldates
from the eleventh century, but has been partially reconstructed in modern
times. The high
altar has a silver statue of
St. Cathaldus; the saint's chapel,
rich in marble and statues,
with a cupola decorated
with a fresco of Paolo de Matteis, is due to the munificence of archbishops Lelio
Brancaccio, Saria, and Pignatelli.
Tarentum, called Taras by
the Greeks, was founded in 707 B.C. by some Spartans, who, the sons of
free women and
enslaved fathers, were born during the Messenian War. They succeeded in
conquering the Menapii and Lucani. Like Sparta,
Tarentum was an aristocratic republic, but became democratic when the ancient
nobility dwindled. Its government was praised by Aristotle.
The people were industrious and commercial, employing a mercenary army
commanded by foreign leaders, like the King of Sparta Archidamus
II, Cleonymus, and later Pyrrhus. Alexander, King of Epirus, tried in vain to
capture the city; he then became an ally of the Romans, and his death in a new
expedition against the Tarentines led to the first dispute between the two
republics. War resulted from the violation of a maritime treaty by the Romans
(281). Tarentum engaged the services of Pyrrhus, who, victorious at first, was
finally conquered at Beneventum (275);
in 272 the city was taken by the Romans and included in the federation. Even in
those early days it was renowned for its beautiful climate. In 208 it sided
with Hannibal, but was retaken in 205, losing its liberty and its art
treasures, including the statueof
Victory. In ancient times its poets Apollodorus and Clinias, its painter Zeuxis,
and its mathematician Archytas were renowned. The Byzantines captured
Taranto in 545 during the Gothic wars,
but abandoned it in 552. In 668 it belonged to Romuald, Duke of Beneventum.
In 882 the Saracens,
having been invited by Duke Radelchis to assist him, captured it and held it
for some time. It was retaken by the Byzantines,
who were forced to cede it to Otto
II in 982; in 1080 it fell into the hands of Robert
Guiscard, who made it the capital of the Principality of Taranto, and gave
it to Boemund, his son. When the House of Anjou was divided, Taranto fell to
Durazzo (1394-1463). In 1504 Ferdinand, King of Naples,
valiantly defended this extremity of his kingdom, but had to cede it to
Gonsalvo di Cordova. In 1801 it was taken by the French, who fortified the
port; in 1805 the Russian fleet, allied with the British, remained there for
several months. Taranto is the birthplace of the musician Paisiello.
According to the local
legend, the Gospel was preached in Taranto by the same St. Peter who had consecrated St.
Amasianus bishop.
The city venerates also the martyr St.
Orontius. The first bishop whose
date is known is Innocentius (496). In the time of St.
Gregory the Great, three bishops filled
the episcopal chair: Andreas (590), Joannes (601), Honorius (603). It is
uncertain whether St. Cataldus belongs to the sixth or the seventh century.
Joannes (978) is the first who had the title of archbishop.
It is well known that Taranto even under the Byzantines never
adopted the Greek
Rite. Stephanus perished in the battle of Nelfi (1041) fought by the Greeks
and the Normans; Draco (1071) erected the cathedral;
Filippo (1138) was deposed for supporting the antipope Anacletus
II, and died in the monastery of
Chiaravalle; Archbishop Angelo was employed in several embassies by Innocent
III; Jacopo da Atri was slain (1370); Marino del Giudice (1371) was one of
the cardinals condemned
by Urban
VI (1385). Cardinal Ludovico Bonito (1406) was one of the few who
remained faithful to Gregory
XII; Cardinal Giovanni d'Aragona (1478), was son of King Ferdinand of Naples;
Giovanni Battista Petrucci suffered for the complicity of his father in
the conspiracy of the barons; Cardinal Battista Orsini died in 1503 in the
Castle of Sant' Angelo; Cardinal Marcantonio Colonna (1560) introduced
the Tridentine reforms
and established the seminary;
Girolamo Gambara (1569) was a distinguished nuncio;
Lelio Brancaccio (1574) suffered considerable persecution on
account of his efforts at reformation; Tommaso Caracciolo (1630), a Theatine,
died in the odour of sanctity.
The city of Taranto forms a single parish divided
into four pittagerii, each of which contains a sub-pittagerio. It
includes the Basilian Abbey
of S. Maria di Talfano, where there are still some Albanians following
the Greek
Rite. The suffragan sees are
Castellaneta and Oria.
The archdiocese contains 26 parishes,
214 secular and 47 regular
priests; 5 religious
houses of men, and 12 of nuns;
and 220,300 inhabitants.
Sources
CAPPELLETTI, Le chiese
d'Italia, XXI; DE VICENTINI, Storia di Taranto (Taranto, 1865).
Benigni,
Umberto. "Taranto." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
14. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1912. 11 May 2019 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14450d.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas M. Barrett. Dedicated to
the Christian Community of Taranto.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://newadvent.org/cathen/14450d.htm
Butler’s
Lives of the Saints – Saint Cataldus, Bishop of Tarentum, in Italy
He was a learned Irish
monk, who was for some time regent of the great school of Lismore, soon after
the death of its founder Saint Carthag. To this nursery of learning and virtue
prodigious numbers flocked both from the neighbouring and remote countries.
Saint Cataldus at length resigned his charge in quest of some closer
retirement, and travelled to Jerusalem; and, in his return into Italy, was
chosen bishop of Tarentum, not in the sixth century, as some Italian writers
have imagined, much less in the second, but in the decline of the seventh. He
is titular saint of the cathedral, the only parish church of the city, though
it is said to contain eighteen thousand inhabitants. Saint Cataldus is counted
the second bishop. Colgan gives an epitaph placed under an image of Saint
Cataldus at Rome, which declares his birth, travels, and death, as follows:
Me tulit Hiberne, Solymæ
traxere, Tarentum
Nunc tenet: huic ritus, dogmata, jura dedi.
Which are thus Englished
by Harris in his edition of Ware’s Irish bishops:
Hibernia gave me birth:
thence wafted o’er,
I sought the sacred Solymean shore.
To thee, Tarentum, holy rites I gave,
Precepts divine; and thou to me a grave.
MLA
Citation
Father Alban Butler.
“Saint Cataldus, Bishop of Tarentum, in Italy”. Lives
of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. CatholicSaints.Info.
11 August 2018. Web. 9 May 2019. <http://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-cataldus-bishop-of-tarentum-in-italy/>
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-cataldus-bishop-of-tarentum-in-italy/
Cattedrale
di San Cataldo. Tarente.
Photographie
de Livioandronico2013
Catholic
World – Saint Cathaldus of Taranto, by J F Hogan
“Me tulit Hiberne: Solymae traxere. Tarentum
Nunc tenet. Huic-ritus, dogmata, jura dedi.”
About seven hundred years
before the birth of Christ a band of Spartan adventurers founded the city of
Tarentum. In retaliation for the insults and wrongs that were inflicted on them
at home, on account of their Parthenian origin, they conspired against their native
government; but, failing to accomplish] their designs, they were driven out of
Greece, and condemned, with their leader, Phalanthus, to perpetual exile. They
betook themselves, in their misfortune, to the northern part of Magna Graecia,
and settled by the shores of the great gulf of the Ionian Sea. After searching
for a site that might prove favourable to commerce, they fixed on the isthmus
that separated the large bay from the little harbour now known as the “Mare
Piccolo.” There were some scattered houses already there, and as these were
steadily growing into a town, the place was called after Taras the Giant, a
fabulous son of Neptune, who, according to superstitious traditions, had
banished fever and pestilence from the marshes around. The Parthenians took
possession of the settlement, and, by their enterprise and intelligence, laid
the foundations of a city which grew, in after years, to splendid proportions.
We know not how long
Tarentum Lacedemonian Tarentum, as it was called by Horace preserved the
simplicity of its Spartan manners; but we know that, like Sybaris, Metapontum,
and the other cities of the great Grecian colony, it became famous in history
for its luxury and corruption. The country around it was uncommonly fertile.
The fleeces of the sheep that grazed on the banks of the Galaesus, which flows
into its harbour, were of a finer texture than those of Apulia; and the
“murex,” which gave to its wool the famous red-purple dye, abounded in the seas
around. Its honey rivalled that of the mountain of Hymettus; and it was in the
midst of the vineyards of Aulon, which rose in fertile slopes behind it, that
was to be found that spot of earth that was so dear to Horace:
“Ille terrarum mlhi praeter omnes
Angulus ridet.”
These, and many other resources
on sea and land, became, in the hands of the sturdy Greeks, the materials of an
extensive trade, which brought with it, in the course of a century or two, a
tide of wealth and prosperity that was scarcely surpassed by any other city in
Southern Italy. It reached the summit of its splendour under Archytas, its
famous philosopher and lawgiver, and under his wise rule assumed the
proportions of a vast and magnificent city. It had its temples, its schools,
its theatres, its baths, its palaces. When Plato came from Athens to visit it,
its buildings displayed the classic symmetry so pleasing to the eye of the
great philosopher, the ideal line of Grecian architecture, the line that evokes
life, and gives a form which Plato and his disciples regarded as eternal.
The lives of the people
accorded well with these outward evidences of prosperity. But from prosperity
to vice the road is wide and the distance short. That road the people of
Tarentum travelled, till they vied with their neighbours of Sybaris in luxury
and crime. Then trouble came upon them, and they had good reason to regret the
departed virtues of the race from which they sprung. In their extremity they
sought the aid of the King of Epirus; but, in spite of his daring and bravery,
Pyrrhus was driven back to Greece. And now one of those strange developments of
fortune which sometimes mark with a touch of irony the vicissitudes of history
occurred to the Greeks of Tarentum. Its foremost citizens were banished by the
inexorable Consul Pacuvius, and compelled to take refuge in the very land from
which their forefathers had been expelled. As unwilling as were the original
Spartans to leave their native Lacedemonia, just as unwilling were their
descendants to return to it. Indeed they felt this exile more keenly than if
they had been driven to any other country. The poet Leonidas gave expression to
the general sentiment of the exiles when he said: “I languish far from the land
of Italy, and from Tarentum my country and this banishment is more bitter to me
than death.”
After the defeat of
Pyrrhus, the Tarentines next put their trust in Hannibal; but Hannibal, who at
one time seemed to have secured the whole of Southern Italy against Home, was
obliged to return to Carthage, and old Fabius “Cunctator” was entrusted with
the task of chastising the Tarentines.
The city was now
subjected to one of those systematic forms of pillage peculiar to the old Eoman
Eepublic. Thirty thousand of its citizens were sold as slaves. Its treasures of
gold and silver were transferred to Rome, where they exercised an immediate
effect on the currency and money-market ‘of the empire. Its temples and
theatres were despoiled of their statues and of their paintings. The
superstitious old general respected only the figures of those divinities that
were represented in an attitude of anger Jupiter, launching his thunderbolts
against some rebel of earth or of Olympus; Apollo, piercing with his darts the
children of Niobe; Perseus, despatching the Gorgon with his dagger; Hercules,
trampling on the Amazon; Minerva, threatening Medusa with her spear, or
changing Arachne into a spider. He gave expression in. a few pregnant but
tragic words to the dispositions of Pagan Borne towards her vanquished rebels,
when he said: “Let us leave to the Tarentines their irritated gods.”
From its capture by
Fabius down to the early days of Christianity, Tarentum dwindled into
comparative insignificance. As a part of its punishment, Brundusium was
substituted for it as a port of embarcation for the East. Its trade was ruined
by this unfortunate change, and it has never since recovered from the blow
which shattered the very foundation of its mercantile prosperity.
Who was the first to
preach Christianity to the citizens of Tarentum? At what period were they
converted? Did they remain steadfast after their first conversion, or did they
fall back again into paganism, and require to be rescued a second time? These
are questions which are involved in great obscurity, and have given rise to a
great amount of research and speculation among the native historians of
Calabria. We can only give what appears to be the general conclusion at which
they have arrived.
A tradition of immemorial
standing seems to ascribe the first conversion of Tarentum to Saint Peter and
his disciple and companion, Saint Mark. Seeing that it is held by many writers
that Saint Peter paid two visits to Rome, during the second of which he
suffered martyrdom, it is natural enough to suppose that, on his way to or from
the East, he may have passed through Tarentum, and have preached the good
tidings of Christianity to its people. However this may be, it is certain that
the seeds of Christian life did not take deep root there on its first sowing,
and that in the political turmoil which followed the transfer of the seat of
Empire to Constantinople, its young shoots were almost completely smothered. In
these disturbances Tarentum passed from Romans to Greeks, and from Greeks to
Romans. It was handed about to all kinds of freebooters. For a time it was held
by Belisarius for Justinian; then it was occupied by Totila and his Goths.
These in their turn were expelled by the Imperial arms, and the citadel was
held for the empire until the arrival of the Longobardi, whose commander,
Romoald (Duke of Beneventum) got possession of the town and province.
It must be acknowledged
that such stormy conditions of life were not very favourable to the spread of
Christianity. No wonder, therefore, that little trace should have been found of
the Christian settlement that had once been established at Tarentum when Saint
Cathaldus first appeared within its walls.
That Saint Cathaldus was
a native of Ireland, is a fact which cannot be seriously questioned. Indeed it
is not denied by anybody worthy of a moment’s notice. It has been the constant
tradition of the Church of Tarentum; and in every history of the city or of its
apostle that is of Italian origin, there is but one voice as to the country
from which Saint Cathaldus came. The most valuable biography of the saiat which
we possess was written in the seventeenth century by an Italian Franciscan
named Bartolomeo Moroni, As this work professes to be based on very ancient
codices and manuscripts of the Church of Taranto, we must conclude that it
contains a good deal that is accurate and trustworthy, whilst a very cursory
examination is sufficient to convince us that fable and fiction have entered
not a little into its composition. It tells us, at all events, that Cathaldus
was a native of Ireland; that he was born at a place called Kachau according to
some, at Cathandum according to others; that as a happy augury of his future
mission to the half Greek, half Italian city of Taranto, his father’s name was
Euchus, and his mother’s Achlena or Athena.
A good deal of discussion
has been indulged in as to the identity of his birthplace. The general opinion
seems to be that Kachau was the place from which he took his title as bishop,
and that Cathandum was the place of his birth. This Cathandum is supposed to be
identified either with “Ballycahill,” in the Ormond district of North
Tipperary, and in the diocese of Killaloe, or with a place of the same name not
far from Thurles, in the diocese of Cashel. As for Rachau, it is believed to be
intended either for Eahan in the King’s County, where Saint Carthage had his
famous monastery, and where he ruled as a bishop before his expulsion by the Hy
Niall of Meath, or for one of the numerous places called Kath in the immediate
neighbourhood of Lismore; or, finally, as Lanigan thinks probable, the place
now called Shanraghan in Southern Tipperary and on the confines of Waterford.
It is distinctly stated that the place was, at all events, in the province of
Munster, and not far from Lismore. Nothing more precise can be laid down with
certainty.
What does not, however,
admit of the slightest doubt, is the fact that Saint Cathaldus was surrounded
by spiritual and religious influences of a very special kind from his infancy
upwards. These influences found in his soul a most sympathetic response, and
when they had lifted the thoughts and aspirations of this fair youth above
earthly things, he was sent by his parents to the neighbouring school of
Lismore. This school, although it had been established only for a very short
time, had already acquired widespread fame, and had attracted students from all
parts of England and Scotland, and from several continental countries besides.
What a busy place this
famous southern university must have been in the days of its prosperity ! When
we read the account of it that has come down to us, glorified though it may be,
and exaggerated, as no doubt it is, by the imaginations of its admirers,
writing, some of them, centuries after its decay, and seeing it chiefly through
the scholars and apostles that it produced, we cannot help being struck by the
features of resemblance, and yet the strong contrast, it presents with those
Grecian cities that, in far-off times, gathered to their academies and their
market-places the elite of the world orators, poets, artists, grammarians,
philosophers, all who valued culture or knew the price of intellectual
superiority. Lismore had no spacious halls, no classic colonnades, no statues,
or fountains, or stately temples. Its houses of residence were of the simplest
and most primitive description, and its halls were in keeping with these, mere
wooden structures, intended only to shut off the elements, but without any
claim or pretense to artistic design. And yet Lismore had something more
valuable than the attractions of either architecture or luxury. It possessed that
which has ever proved the magnet of the philosopher and the theologian truth,
namely, and truth illumined by the halo of religion. It sheltered also in its
humble halls whatever knowledge remained in a barbarous age of those rules of
art that had already shed such lustre on Greece and Borne., or had been
fostered in Ireland itself according to principles and a system of native
conception. Hence it drew around it a crowd of foreigners Saxons and Britons,
Franks and Teutons, Sicambrians and Helvetians, Arvernians and Bohemians:
“Undique conveniunt
proceres quos dulce trahebat
Discendi stadium, major num cognita virtus
An laudata foret. Celeres vastissima Eheni
Jam vada Teutonici, jam deseruere Sicambri.
Mittit ah extreme gelidos Aquilone Boemos
Albis, et Arverni coeunt, Batavique frequentes,
Et quicumque colunt alta sub rape Gehennas.
Non omnes prospectat Arar, Ehodanique fluenta
Helvetica; multos desiderat ultima Thule.
Certatim hi properant, diverse tramite ad urbem
Lesmoriam, juvenis primes ubi transigit annos.”
At Lismore Cathaldus
edified his brethren by his extraordinary piety as well as by his great love of
study. In due time he passed from the student’s bench to the master’s chair,
and whilst he taught in the schools, he was not unmindful of the world’s needs.
He raised a church at Lismore to the glory of God and the perpetual memory of
His Virgin Mother. Frequent miracles bore testimony at this period to the
interior sanctity of the young professor. So great was the admiration of the
people for him that one of the princes in the neighbourhood grew jealous of his
influence, and denounced him to the King of Munster as a magician, who aimed at
subverting established authority and setting up his own in its place. The King
accordingly sent his fleet to Lismore, where Cathaldus was taken prisoner and
confined in a dungeon until some favourable opportunity should offer to have
him conveyed into perpetual exile. The King, however, soon found what a mistake
he had committed, and, instead of banishing Cathaldus, he offered him the
territory of Rachau, which belonged to Meltridis, the Prince who had denounced
him, and who was now overtaken by death in the midst of his intrigues.
Cathaldus refused the temporal honours which the King was anxious to confer
upon him, and proclaimed that he vowed his life to religion, and sought no
other honours. He was, therefore, raised to the episcopate, and constituted the
chief spiritual ruler of the extensive territory of the deceased Meltridis,
whose tanist rights were made over on the church.
After Cathaldus had ruled
the see of Kachau for some years, he resolved to set out on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. He committed the care of his diocese to his neighbouring bishops,
and set sail, without any retinue, for the Holy Land. It is probable that he
was accompanied by hisbrother, Donatus, who afterwards became Bishop of Lupiaer
now Lecce, in Calabria. In due course he reached his destination, and had the
supreme happiness of kneeling at the great sepulchre, or as Tasso expresses it:
“D’adorar la Gran Tomba e
sciorre il voto.”
With all the love and
reverence of a pilgrim he sought out the holy places that had been sanctified
by the presence of his Heavenly Master; and so great was his joy to live in
these solitudes, and dwell on the mysteries of man’s salvation, amidst the very
scenes in which it had been accomplished, that he earnestly desired and prayed
to be relieved of his episcopal burden, and allowed to live and die in the
desert in which our Lord had fasted, or in some one of the retreats that had
been made sacred for ever by His earthly presence. Whilst engaged in earnest
prayer on these thoughts, his soul was invaded by a supernatural light, which
made clear to him that Providence had other designs about him. He accordingly
started on the journey that Heaven had marked out for him; and, having been
shipwrecked in the Gulf of Taranto, he was cast ashore not far from the city of
which he was to become the apostle and the bishop. The cave in which he first
took refuge is still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Otranto, not far from
the point of the Japygian promontory.
The shipwrecked pilgrim,
henceforward an apostle, soon made his way to the eastern gate of Tarentum. At
the entrance of the city a blind man was to be seen, asking for assistance from
those who passed by. His condition was symbolical of the darkness that
prevailed within. Cathaldus addressed him, spoke to him of Christ and of the
Blessed Trinity, and, as he found him amenable to Christian teaching, he instructed
him in the mysteries of salvation; and whilst he imparted to him the light of
grace through the Sacrament of Baptism he restored to him the light of natural
vision through that supernatural power that had been vouchsafed to him. This
whole circumstance was regarded as a happy omen, and as a symbol of the change
to be wrought by the apostle within the city.
A parallel has sometimes
been drawn between tbe condition of Taranto, when Saint Cathaldus first entered
its gates, with that of Athens when it was first visited by Saint Paul. The
parallel holds good in some respects, but not in all. Taranto was, to all intents
and purposes, as deeply plunged in paganism as Athens was. There was scarcely a
vestige left of the early religious settlement that had been made there by
Saint Peter and Saint Mark, or by whoever had preached the Gospel to its people
in early times. Paganism reigned supreme; but, in so far as it constituted a
religion at all, it was paganism in its most corrupt and repellent form. The
days of Archytas and of Pythagoras were now left far behind. The artistic
splendour which had never entirely disappeared from Athens, had long since
vanished from Taranto. There was no culture now, but ignorance and barbarism,
the result of centuries of war and strife. With minds thus steeped in
ignorance, with hearts corrupted by licence and perverted by superstition, the
people of this neglected city did not offer a very encouraging prospect to the
new missionary who appeared among them. His success, nevertheless, was greater
than that of St. Paul at the capital of Greece. He won his way to the hearts of
the people by his eloquence, his zeal, his power of working miracles; and when
the prejudice entertained against his person and speech was once removed, the
divine origin of the Gospel that he preached was acknowledged readily enough.
We have, unfortunately, but very meagre details as to the methods of his
apostolate; but we are assured, at all events, that they were so effective as
to win over the whole city in a few years. Certain it is that Cathaldus was
acknowledged without dispute, during his own lifetime, as Bishop of Tarentum,
and that he has ever since been revered as the founder of the Tarentine Church
and the patron saint of the converted city.
It is said that when the
saint felt that his death was at hand, he called around him his priests and
deacons and the chief men of the city, and earnestly exhorted them to remain
faithful to his teaching.
“I know [he said], that
when I am gone dreadful and relentless enemies shall rise up against you, and
endeavour, by heretical sophistry, to tear asunder the members of the Catholic
Church, and lead astray the flock which I brought together with such pains.
Against these enemies of your faith and of the Christian religion, I entreat
you to strengthen the minds of the people by your own firmness, ever mindful of
my labours and vigils.”
The remains of the holy
Bishop were committed, at his own request, to their native earth in his
Cathedral Church. They were enclosed in a marble tomb, portion of which is
still preserved. For some time the exact position of this tomb was unknown, but
when Archbishop Drogonus of Tarentum was restoring the cathedral, in the
eleventh century, the tomb was discovered. It was opened by the Archbishop, and
the body of the saint was found well preserved. A golden cross had been
attached to the body of the saint at the time of his burial. This also was
discovered, and found to bear upon it the name of Cathaldus. The relics of the
saint were then encased and preserved in the high altar of the cathedral.
During the; pontificate of Eugenius III they were transferred to a beautiful
silver shrine adorned with gems and precious stones. A silver statue of
Cathaldus was also cast, and erected in the church. These and many other
memorials of the saint are still to be seen, and are held in great veneration
by the people of Taranto.
The miracles attributed
to the saints of the Church are often spoken of with derision by those who
regard themselves as the children of light. These, whilst they minister to
their own vanity, and fancy that nature has taken them specially into her
confidence, revealing her inmost secrets to their ardent gaze, sometimes
succeed in deceiving others: but they deceive themselves more than all. Indeed
it is almost impossible to conceive how those early saints could have succeeded
in winning over to Christianity, in the space of a few years, whole cities and
districts that had hitherto been steeped in vice and superstition, without the
power of working miracles. When that power is once granted, the explanation of
wholesale conversion becomes easy and plain. Something is necessary to strike
and astonish the multitude, and when wonder and alarm have become general, half
the battle is already gained.
That Saint Cathaldus
possessed this power in a high degree, is testified not only in the records of
his life, but still more authentically in the wholesale nature of the
(Conversions that he wrought, and the unfading memory he left impressed on the
city to which he ministered. The veneration for Cathaldus was not confined to
Tarentum alone. It spread far and wide through Italy, Greece, and the Ionian
islands. The village of Castello San Cataldo on the Ionian coast, midway
between Brindisi and Otranto, perpetuates his name. Chapels dedicated to the
saint, or statues erected in his honour, may be seen in many of the
neighbouring towns of Calabria. The Cathedral of Taranto itself is, however,
his greatest monument. M. Paul Bourget, the famous French Academician, who
recently visited these southern shores, speaks of it as “la belle cathedrale
Normande vouee a San Cataldo, l’apotre irlandais du pays.” It is a Norman
cathedral, but many of the distinctive features of Norman architecture have
given way to new designs, which make of it a curious mixture of many styles.
The interior of the church, however, is very rich, many of the chapels being
profusely inlaid with “pietra dura.” The shrine and statue of the saint are
particularly fine. Notwithstanding the series of successive influences, and of
rival civilizations that have passed over these southern lands, Greek, Roman,
Byzantine, Saracen, Norman, Teuton, and later Italian, M. Bourget is impressed,
and not without reason, at the indelible impress that was made upon them by his
Norman countrymen.
The Cathedral of Otranto,
built by Eoger Duke of Calabria, son of Robert Guiscard, still maintaining its
noble severity in the midst of ruin and decay, is a proof of this time-defying
impress. There is scarcely a trace to be found in any of these towns of the old
Grecian or Roman monuments. They have been utterly swept away; but the Norman
tower still lifts it head, defying the centuries and resting on the faultless
arch that time seems powerless to disturb. To the onlooker it conveys something
of the austere but truthful lesson that is inscribed within on the tomb of one
of its bishops:
DECIPIMUR VOTIS. TRADUNT
NOS TEMPORA. SED MORS
DELENIT CURAS. ANXIA VITA NIHIL.
This same endurance of
the Norman buildings is noticed all over the province from Brindisi to Reggio.
M. Bourget was particularly struck with it at Lecce, the modern capital of the
“Terra di Otranto.” There, a little outside the city, Tancred had built a
church, which was dedicated to Saint Nicholas and Saint Cathaldus. It is now
surrounded by a large cemetery, for which it serves as a mortuary chapel. In
speaking of this interesting building M. Bourget says:
“If ever I regretted not
having received that special education which enables one to discern at first
sight the technical value of a piece of architecture, it was long ago in
England, in face of one of those great cathedrals, like Canterbury, and it was
here, in view of this Norman facade. I felt that it was really fine. But such
sensations, when not supported by some exact idea of their cause, remain
incomplete, as when one listens to music without a knowledge of harmony, or
reads verses without possessing the secret of metre. And yet I was fascinated
by these two doors one in front, the other at the side; by the noble simplicity
of the arch, and the elegance, still intact, of the arabesques. It is possible
that I may not have been so vividly impressed, were it not that the church
arose, solitary and silent, in the midst of this ‘Campo Santo,’ and that the
memory of its founder, Tancred, had been inscribed on its architrave in leonine
verse.”
As for Taranto itself, M.
Bourget tells us that, notwithstanding some remnants of its Norman pride, it
has fallen, at the present day, into utter and almost absolute decay:
“Fallen, indeed, it is
[he writes]; for this modern Taranto, to which I have just paid a lengthened
visit, has not even the charm of unconsoled decay, which makes of Otranto’s
lonely pile something greater and more splendid than a ruin. Those who have
gone to that point of Sicily which looks across towards Carthage, may remember
that little hill of Selinonte, and how much more majestic its temples,
shattered by an earthquake, appear now, in their total wreck, than they did
when their colonnades looked out in defiance over that African sea in which the
Punic galleys were arrayed. The worst decline is that which survives itself in
mediocrity. Confined almost exclusively to the island that served merely as an
acropolis to the ancient city, modern Taranto is built of sordid houses, which
are divided by streets that seem narrower than even the narrowest calle in
Venice. The people who dwell in these houses, and circulate through these
oppressive passages, look pale and sickly. Living almost exclusively on fish,
they are subject to many diseases, and one would look in vain among them for a
single type of that grace which they know so well how to impart to the little
statues in terra-cotta in which they deal so largely.”
The misery of the city
itself contrasts rather strangely with the scenery of the country that
stretches away towards the east. As one approaches Otranto the plain becomes a
vast field of olives and of orange-trees. It reminds M. Bourget of the valley
between Malaga and Bobadilla, in Spain, one of the most picturesque sights in
Europe. But, through good or ill, the faith of the people of Taranto has never
varied since their final conversion. They have seen many changes, from the days
of Robert Guiscard to those of Napoleon; but they still adhere to the creed of
the Koman Church, and of the Church of Saint Patrick and Saint Cathaldus.
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/catholic-world-saint-cathaldus-of-taranto-by-j-f-hogan/
_07.jpg)
Chiesa della Martorana & San Cataldo
_08.jpg)
Chiesa
di San Cataldo Palermo
Chiesa
di San Cataldo Palermo
Chiesa
di San Cataldo Palermo
Chiesa
di San Cataldo Palermo
Chiesa
di San Cataldo Palermo
Saint
Cataldus, Known as Cathal or San Cataldo, by A Pilgrim
Among the scattered
biographies of our Irish Saints, there are few that claim a deeper interest, or
present a more fascinating or instructive chain of incidents than the life-tale
of Saint Cataldus. And yet there is none, we venture to think, of that long line
of heroic apostles whose names fill our national calendars, of whom less is
known in the country of his birth.
Far away in that sunny
land of Southern Italy where the white-capped waves of the Adriatic break upon
the shingly beach, there is an olden city, whose domes and towers and long
lines of roofs, grown russet and brown with the shadows of centuries, where the
memory of Cataldus of Ireland is preserved as lovingly and as freshly as in
that far-off day when its citizens chose him for their patron, and dedicated
their noblest temple to his honour. This is the proud city of Tarantum or
Taranto, which gives its name to the land-locked gulf of the Adriatic Sea. In
its period of classic glory, it seemed to rival Imperial Rome, and in the
vastness of its commerce and the fame of Tarantum’s industries and
manufactures, it once vied with the famous but fated cities of Sidon and Tyre.
It is, indeed, strange in
the paths of history as we trace the footprints of our wandering Irish
apostles, that here in this distant foreign city we find the narratives of the
life, legends, and miracles of this sixth century Saint handed down as a
precious heirloom from sire to son, while at home in the land that bore him,
his name and existence awaken little more than the faintest echoes of dim
tradition. As our story is unfolded, this reflection – regretful thought as we
may call it – cannot fail to suggest itself to our Irish readers as it does to
us.
Cataldus – or Cathal, as
he is styled in the terse records of our Irish manuscripts – was born in the
kingdom of Mononia (our present Munster) in the latter part of the fifth
century. The learned Franciscan historian, John Colgan, to whose pen and
researches Ireland owes so much, fixes his birthplace in the riding of Upper Ormonde,
North Tipperary. Here there is a town-land called Ballycahill, which is
identified as the tribal home of his clan, and here we trace one of the faint
outlines of his name to which we have just alluded. His father was a minor
prince, and Cathal was the eldest and seemingly the only child of his house.
Miracles or strange manifestations of the favours with which God was pleased to
mark his career, from dawn to close, were vouchsafed from the hour of our
Saint’s nativity.
The joy, which his birth
brought his parents, was quickly turned to sadness, for a few hours after the
child came into the world his mother died. However, we are told that the infant
fingers of the babe, having by chance touched the lifeless corpse that lay
beside it, life returned, and the young mother, whose loss was mourned, was
restored to her husband and child. In connection with the infancy of our Saint,
several legends are recorded. One tells us, how an aged hermit who lived in the
solitude of the Galtee Mountains, on the night Cathal was born, saw a
miraculous light encircle the abode of his parents as he looked down from his
cell over the distant plain. Hastening to the scene, the holy man blessed the
child and predicted that he was destined by God for great things. Again, we are
told that while still very young, by accident, the little boy fell, and his
head was dashed against a rude stone. It was believed the fall would have cost
him his life, but he was left unhurt, while, like softest wax, the stone
received the impress of his head. His preservation was looked on as miraculous
– which no doubt it was, since, for years afterwards, water placed within the
hollow of the stone was found to possess healing powers for various diseases.
Very early in his life
the sanctity of the child led his parents to place him at the famous school of
Lismore founded by Saint Carthage.
The fame of the schools
of Ireland at that period had spread over Europe. Each would seem to have
cultivated some special branch of religious or secular education. But Lismore,
in the valet of the Blackwater, had become famous as embodying in its teachings
what we would call a general system, providing its scholars not only with the
means of acquiring knowledge of the deeper sciences of mathematics and
philosophy, but also all the accomplishments and useful crafts of that day.
Students flocked to it from England, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain, and even
from the shores of the Aegean Sea. It was here, as we learn from history, that
at a later time than the period of which we write, that Oswald, of Northumbria,
perfected himself in languages and psalmody, and was, on his return home, able
to interpret for his people the preachings of the foreign missionaries he
brought amongst them. And to the teachings of his Irish masters in Lismore, we
may doubtless attribute the sanctity and sacrifices of this holy king, which
secured for him a place among the royal Saints of his own country.
Alfred the Great, too,
spent years of study in the vale of the Blackwater, and from the Irish bards
learned to play the harp, and interweave with its melodies those weird songs
with which he charmed his Danish foes, when disguised he visited their camp and
perfected the stratagem by which he won back his crown and kingdom.
But let us return to the
thread of our story.
Cathal won distinctions
without number in the school of Saint Carthage, and when he had completed his
course was retained as a teacher, so highly were his attainments estimated.
Being, however, filled with a longing to spread afar the tidings of the Gospel,
after some time he returned to his native place, where many of his relatives,
and other inhabitants were still plunged in superstition and paganism. Success
attended his preaching on every side, and miracles seem to bless every effort
of the Saint in the course of his Apostolate. For the conversion of so many souls,
Cathal was filled with gratitude towards God, to whose mercy he attributed all
his powers, and in thanksgiving, we are told, he built a church in Lismore,
which he caused to be dedicated to the Mother of God.
Cathal, though he taught
the Divine truths, and had conducted so many into the fold of the True Faith,
had not yet entered the sacred Ministry. He was at this time living in his
father’s home. The death of both his parents occurring within a brief period,
and releasing him, as he felt, from earthly and domestic ties, the holy youth
determined on disposing of his patrimony, and carrying out his desire of
entering the religious state. His whole life had been a preparation for this
step, and very soon the holy order of priesthood was conferred on him.
His zeal and reputation
for sanctity, together with the wonder-working powers, which were accredited to
him, brought such crowds around him, and coupled such praises with his name,
that in his humility he determined to leave the people among whom he ministered,
and who were so devoted to him.
Secretly he stole away
and retraced his steps to Lismore. Here, amidst the vast concourse of monks and
scholars, he hoped to escape the notice and flattery of men, and undisturbed,
might devote himself more intimately to the service of God. Almost immediately
on his return to the place where he had passed so many happy years, the zealous
priest set about building another oratory at which he worked with his own
hands. His whereabouts were however traced, and, as in the scenes he had just
left, so now again, the blind, the lame, and the sorrow stricken hourly sought
his aid and consolation.
It is related that at
this time Cataldus, almost unconsciously, worked some of his greatest miracles.
The child of a soldier who served in the army of the Prince of Desii, in whose
territory Lismore was situated, was seized with a grave illness. The troubled
father was advised to set out for the birthplace of the Saint and procure some
water from the hollow of the stone on which the impress of Cathal’s head had
remained since the accident, which had occurred in his childhood. On his
return, the soldier was grieved to learn that during his absence his son had
died. Hearing the Saint was at Lismore, the poor man in his frenzy took the lifeless
corpse, and carrying it for many miles reached the spot where Cathal was to be
found. The holy man at the time was busy digging out, as we are told, the deep
foundation for his new church. Laying the body close to where the Saint was
working, the soldier besought him to have pity on him, and implore God to
restore his child to life. At the moment, as Cathal was casting the earth up
from the deep trench a portion of the clay fell upon the lifeless form. A rosy
hue at once stole over the pale cheek of the dead child. A movement of life
returned to the rigid limbs, and, as if awaking from a sleep the child rose up,
and was quickly enfolded in the arms of his father!
Rumour, with its myriad
tongues, soon bore the tidings of this miracle far over the land. It seemed
like a renewal of the Gospel wonders wrought by the shores of Galilee. And,
like as with his Divine Master, the blessings, which Cataldus brought to
others, were to be likewise fruitful of persecution to himself. Meltride, the
Prince of Desii, was still a pagan. Urged on by the representations of his
Druid priests he petitioned the King of Munster, whose vassal he was, to have
the saint imprisoned, lest by his magic and seditious language he should
mislead his subjects. The wily insinuation had the wished-for result. The old
king yielded to the suggestions of Meltride and his wicked advisers, and
ordered the holy priest to be arrested, and cast into prison.
Strange to tell, and as
if in punishment of his crime, Meltride died suddenly and the aged Monarch of
Munster, like the king in tragedy, could “sleep no more.” His brain was
tortured with the thought of his injustice, and, moreover, he was besieged with
the ceaseless demands of the people for the release of their benefactor.
“Conscience makes cowards of us all,” and kings are no exception, and soon by
royal mandate, the guiltless prisoner was set free.
The king, we read, not
only released him, but in his effort to repair the injustice of which he had
been the instrument, offered Cataldus the princedom and territory of the
unhappy Meltride.
These favours the Saint
declined, at the same time assuring the King of his hearty forgiveness.
However, later on we learn, the bishopric of Rahan becoming vacant, Cathal was
compelled to accept it, and found unexpectedly the estates of Meltride
conferred by royal gift on his diocese as mensal property to provide meals for
the bishop’s clergy.
This generosity
abundantly proved that the King, who once cast him into prison, was indeed a
generous enemy, and, better still, a penitent one. There is no longer a diocese
of Rahan in Ireland, but, if we mistake not, it was the same small monastic see
from which Saint Carthage was expelled by some ungrateful men of Meath. This
circumstance of expulsion led to Saint Carthage founding the School of Lismore.
And, by a strange coincidence, within the neighbourhood of this self-same
Rahan, the Irish Jesuits have today one of their famous seats of
education, Saint Stanislaus’ Tullabeg, Tullamore, where we feel that it
will be ever their pride to revive and keep green the memory of our great early
Irish scholars, Carthage and Cataldus.
Some of our readers,
versed in antiquities, will gather interest from this novel side-gleam of
ecclesiastical story. It reveals that the first see of Carthage was, at most,
but one of Abbatial jurisdiction, confined to the extent of his monastic
estates. There were many such sees in Ireland; in fact, they seem to have been
almost as numerous as are parishes now. Moreover, it will remind them that,
after the coming of the Cistercians, in the days of the Sainted Primate Malachy
of Armagh, Pope Eugenius III, the patron of Saint Bernard, made a
redistribution of sees in ecclesiastical Ireland, much as we find them today.
But let us go back to
Cathal and his subsequent history. Just at this time – the earlier decades of
the sixth century – an anxious yearning to go forth on missions of Apostolic
enterprise took possession of our Irish scholars. They seem to have been urged,
in prosecuting their holy desires, by three distinct motives. Some left their
country, like Romuald of Dublin (better known as Saint Rumbold of Mechelen), in
order to avoid regal and worldly honours which their faithful people would
feign thrust upon them. Others made sacrifice of home and country, for Christ’s
sake, to preach and spread the Gospel. But a still greater number seem to have
been actuated by the wish to visit, as pilgrims, places sacred to the birth of
Christianity – the Holy Land, the temples and the tombs of Rome.
Cataldus was one of the
latter band. He left his diocese – not, we should think, with any idea of
forsaking Ireland for ever – and set out for Jerusalem. He had long cherished a
desire to visit and venerate scenes consecrated by the footsteps of our
Redeemer, and worship in the places where Christ had trod. After months of
travel and various vicissitudes, he reached the Holy Land. His enthusiastic
aspirations and holiest dreams seemed now about to be satisfied. To him each
scene was almost familiar, so long had their associations been coupled with the
life and thoughts of Him whom he had chosen from infancy as his model, and on
whose Divine teachings he had pondered in meditation. In his fervour, a
strange, yet holy thought filled his mind to take up his abode, at least for a
time, and live as a hermit in the Holy Land. Close to Bethlehem, he chose for
himself a grotto cell, whence he visited all those spots sacred to Scripture
story. For a time, he felt happy and satisfied in the realisation of his
holiest life dreams.
But the path Cataldus had
chosen was not the one for which he was destined by the Providence of God. Soon
it occurred to him that the life of an anchorite, even amid places of such holy
recollection, was, as far as the outer simple world was concerned, a selfish
one. He was, after all, but labouring now for the salvation of one soul – his
own – while within him lay the power of gathering many guests to the
everlasting feast. The parable of the “ten talents” may have realized its
meaning more forcibly for him, as he meditated amid the very scenes where the
imperishable simile fell from the lips of the Divine Teacher. Gifted as he was
with the highest knowledge and acquirements of his time, was he not called upon
to turn to account those endowments, and not leave “his talents” buried in the
pound? And full of faith, as these reflections caught a faster hold on his
soul, he sought the will of God in prayer, promising that he would follow the
inspiration of Divine guidance whithersoever it beckoned him. At length his
prayer was heard, and it was mysteriously revealed to him that he should travel
to Italy and restore the faith to the City of Tarantum, where once the Apostles
Peter and Paul had preached, but where their teachings were now, alas,
forgotten.
At once, the Saint
obeyed, although his departure from the land which he had longed for as the
home of prolonged contemplation was a grave trial – a sacrifice made more
bitter still by the thought that he was never perhaps again to return to his
beloved Ireland.
Travelling on to the
shores of the Levant, Cataldus found a vessel on the point of starting for Italy.
The day he embarked was calm and beautiful; favouring winds filled the sails of
the barque and gave promise of a happy voyage. However, at sundown, although
nothing as far as human calculation could foresee betokened a change, Cataldus
warned the captain of a coming storm. The suggestion was, however, badly
received by the master of the ship and his crew, who smiled at the words of the
inexperienced passenger. Soon, however, they found that Cataldus was not far
astray. Unexpectedly, a storm arose of such violence that the vessel became
unmanageable and had to be allowed to drift along, a plaything of the tempest.
One of the sailors, who attempted to mount the yards, and reef the tattered
sails, was dashed upon the deck and killed. In the face of such peril the
anxious crew crowded round the stranger who had foretold the disaster, and
pitying them, Cataldus, lifting his eyes to heaven invoked the Blessed Trinity,
and making the sign of the cross over the raging sea, the winds fell and the
surging billows quickly sobbed themselves to rest! This miracle won for our
Saint, it is needless to say, the boundless gratitude of the poor sailors, but
better still, it won for him their souls, for they were pagans, and all were
converted by this manifestation of the power of the one true God.
At the close of this
eventful voyage, Cataldus was landed at the little port at the mouth of the
Adriatic, ever since known as “Porto di San Cataldo.” Close to the beach was a
little cave wherein the holy man offered thanks for his safety. In after times,
through veneration for his memory, it became a votive chapel, wherein, on
festival occasions, the sacred mysteries continued long to be celebrated.
If we look at the map of
Italy, a little below the well-known call-port of Brindisi, this point
connected with and named after our Irish Saint will be found. The journey from
his landing-place to Tarantum was not very far. Yet in those days, when neither
rails nor bicycles were available, it was not pleasant. The country here has none
of the attractive characteristics, which go to make an ideal Italian landscape.
It is dreary and monotonous, and would compare sadly with the tamest of our
Irish lowlands.
On his journey, it is
related that our Saint was often obliged to ask his way. On one occasion, he
inquired of a little shepherdess the road to Tarantum. The child gazed upon the
venerable stranger with sad yet wistful eyes, but made no reply. She was deaf
and dumb, as Cataldus quickly perceived. Taking pity upon her, the holy man placed
his hands upon her head, and at his prayers, her faculties of speech and
hearing were restored perfectly. Full of joy, the little girl took him by the
hand and led him to the village where her parents lived, and which lay in his
direct road to Tarantum. The poor parents knew not what to think, and were
almost beside themselves with joy, when their child, who had never spoken from
her birth, rushed in to tell them what had occurred. All the neighbours and
kinsfolk were quickly on the spot to witness the miraculous cure and see the
wondrous stranger who had wrought it. Cataldus, availing of the opportunity,
explained to them that he was but the representative of the Great God who was
the Giver of every good gift, and to Him alone should thanks and praise be
given for the wonder worked amongst them.
Very little more effort
was here needed to reap a plentiful harvest of souls, and before the sainted
missionary left the village, he had the happiness of receiving every soul there
into the bosom of the Church. A journey of a few miles further brought Cataldus
to his destination. In the designs of Providence, Tarantum was to be the home
of his earthly exile.
In his school time, he
had often read the lines of classic reference in which many of the Latin poets
had enshrined the name of the old-world city. As our Saint may have lingered
beneath the lichened arch of its mighty gates, crowds of thoughts will have
come upon him, linking perhaps with his lonely visit to this scene, the
memories of his teachers in far-off Lismore. Dreams will have crowded on his
imagination of long ago, when certainly he never dreamt that with the classic
poet, Virgil, he, too, might sing – . . . . . . “Trojae ab oris . . . in
Italiam venit.” (‘From the shores of Troy . . . in Italy he came.’)
If such were his
reveries, they were broken by the plaintive supplication of a blind beggar who
sought his alms! Then, as now, were verified, in the words of Christ, “the poor
you have always with you.” In reply to questions, which he put to the old man,
Cataldus found he had lived from his youth in Tarantum, and had during his life
shared the sympathy and charity of the citizens. By no other could the story of
Tarantum have been better told, and Cataldus was quick to perceive that in his
first acquaintance – the blind beggar of the wayside – he found the best
introduction to his mission, the conversion of the faithless city. For some
days, the saint came to meet his loquacious acquaintance at his accustomed
resting place.
The mendicant was poor not
in wealth only, but in faith, too, for he was a pagan. Cataldus gradually
unfolded to him the truths of the Gospel, while sympathising with him in his
physical privations and sufferings. He explained to him how much more precious
was the light of Faith than that eyesight which he had only temporarily lost.
How little was the transient light of earth when contrasted with the endless,
undimmed brightness of Eternity? Needless to observe, the poor beggar was
converted, and when Cataldus led him for baptism to a spring close by the gates
of Tarantum, as the darkness of his soul passed away, earthly sight was
restored to his sightless eyeballs. Tarantum, we may be sure, quickly rang with
the news of the blind man’s cure. The people ran in crowds to see the wonder-working
stranger, and listened with docility to his teachings.
In the great squares of
the city, and in the busy marts, Cataldus preached daily till he completely won
the hearts and wrought the conversion of the whole city. Nor, were the
blessings of his Apostolic zeal confined to Tarantum, for, far beyond its walls
the seeds of faith which fell from the words of Cataldus were carried
everywhere, to bear an abundant harvest. The old city, though partly fallen
from the splendour of pre-Christian times, still held a position of great
mercantile importance. The merchants of many nations, east and west, found it a
convenient market for exchange. It was noted for the production of certain
textures made from the wool of a peculiar kind of sheep, which were only to be
found on the plains of Calabria. The dyes of Tarantum were still prized in the
world of fashion, while the waters of the Adriatic supplied a species of fish
from which a type of silk was manufactured, and which rendered the looms of the
city famous over the world. The promiscuous gathering of all races, as we may
say, afforded our Apostle a splendid field for his missionary zeal. His
wonderful proficiency in the knowledge of dialects (which seems to have been
one of the marvellous acquirements of our Irish scholars in the sixth century)
made to Cataldus comparatively easy what to other preachers would have been a
graver task.
As proof of the
far-reaching effects of the Apostolate of Saint Cataldus, we need but consider
the number of widely separated states and cities in which he is venerated.
These we touch upon in the close of our necessarily too brief sketch of his
eventful life.
The apostolate of
Cataldus presents us with an extraordinary instance of missionary tact and
labour. The Faith planted in Tarantum by the first Apostles can hardly have
been said to have wholly died out. But perhaps a worse fate had befallen it, in
its having degenerated and become incorporated in course of years with the
superstition and errors of paganism into which the inhabitants had gradually
relapsed. To unweave this tangled web was the difficulty. Every trace of the
erroneous belief had to be rooted out – the gold to be sifted from the
worthless dross.
To this end, Cataldus
firstly sought the ear of the educated classes, knowing well that, if example
were given by those in high places, half his conquest would be achieved. His
method proved successful beyond all he could have hoped for. But, in addition
to his ingenious zeal, we cannot help thinking that this Irish Saint was more
specially favoured by Heaven than were many others of our Apostles. Miracles
seem to shower on his footsteps, and even forestall his every undertaking. It
will strike many a devout reader of the Saint’s life as he contemplates this
phase of his life, that somehow the great secret, or mainspring of his
Apostolic success, may likely have been his devotion to the great Mother of
God.
With his own hands, he
built two shrines to Her honour by the banks of the Blackwater in Ireland. They
were both votive churches or memorials of thanksgiving. Again, on the shores of
the blue waters of the Adriatic Sea, after his initial missionary successes, in
token of gratitude, his first act was to erect a shrine in honour of His
Blessed Mother.
In the annals of our
Irish Saints, of the early date in which the life of Saint Cataldus was cast,
we find no such constantly recurring and remarkable evidence of filial devotion
to our Blessed Lady.
Our Saint cannot have
been young when he came to Tarantum. The years which were marked by the first
fervour of his preaching, and during which he was so successful, must have been
few. Yet, within a brief compass of time, what great achievements may be
accomplished, the life of our Saint strikingly exhibits. During the pontificate
of Agapitus I, Cataldus was consecrated Bishop of Tarantum, and he ruled the
diocese for fifteen years. Probably within that decade and a half, the events,
which gave such lasting glory to his memory, took place. It was during this
period, that he introduced into his cathedral the custom of having the psalms
sung daily in the choir accompanied by music – a custom for many centuries
observed, and became one of the most attractive cathedral services in Italy.
Again, his literary
pursuits must have involved unwearied toil, since the works ascribed to his pen
ran into volumes. His most famous works were “Homilies for the People,” “A Book
of Prophecies,” and a “Treatise on Visions.”
The immediate province
over which his episcopal jurisdiction extended shows, even in our own day, how
deeply his teachings struck root in its soil. Wherever we find traces of his
footsteps, there, too, we are sure to find a shrine of the sweet Madonna, whose
praises he ever extolled, whom he ever thanked, and to whom he had unfailing
recourse in all his cares.
The last years of Saint
Cataldus, in the details of their holiness, furnish an epitome of the
blessings, which God sheds so often over the closing days of his elect. But
amid them all, as in all his wanderings, his love of Ireland never waned, never
grew faint; and we may well believe that, stretched on the bed of death, his
aged heart travelled back to Lismore of Erin, and that his dying lips invoked a
parting blessing on the loved “Isle of Destiny” in the Western Ocean.
As the springtide sun
slowly sank from the cloudless sky into the bluer depths of the Adriatic Sea,
and while that prayer for Ireland trembled on the lips, Cathal of Lismore, gave
his soul to God on the 8th day of March, AD 550.
Many of the accounts
given by Italian writers describe the intense grief, which pervaded the city of
Tarantum on the death of its second apostle. Some records remind us of an
incident similar to one narrated in connection with the life of another client
of the Mother of God, Saint Antony of Padua. As happened with the sainted
Franciscan centuries afterwards, we are told, that the death-knell of Cataldus
was tolled by the bells of Tarantum of their own accord – unswung by human
hands.
With every mark of honour
and devotion, the body of the Irish saint was placed within a marble casket and
laid to rest beneath the choir of the cathedral, which he had built. Here, for
six centuries votaries came to pay respect to his memory and his sanctity. In
the eleventh century, when the enthusiasm of Christendom began to show itself
in the erection of more splendid temples, Dragone, Archbishop of Tarantum,
undertook the rebuilding of the cathedral of his see. Coming on the coffin of
Cataldus, the workmen were first apprised of its location by the sweet odour,
which the clay that covered it exhaled. In the presence of the clergy and the
people, the sarcophagus was reverently opened. Beside the precious remains of
the saint were found a golden cross – a tablet engraven – and a book plated
with silver. On the cross were inscribed the words- “Famulus Christi Cataldus
Epus Tarantius”, “The Household Servant of Christ, Cataldus, Bishop of
Taranto”.
This relic is still
preserved among the treasures of Tarantum.
In after centuries, on
three successive occasions, the remains of the Saint were translated and
re-enshrined with increased solemnity and becoming splendour. During the
Pontificate of Pope Eugenius III, on May 10th, 1161, Bishop Giraldo had the
relics encased in a silver shrine of costly workmanship, placing with the bones
of the Saint a portion of the True Cross. Almost two centuries later – in 1346
– the then Archbishop of Tarantum had the silver reliquary of Cataldus melted
down and modelled into a statue, within which he placed the skull and several
of the Saint’s bones. On this occasion, we learn, the same prelate, with the
approval of the Holy See, distributed portions of the relics to many places
where the Saint was held in special veneration. Amongst them, we reckon chiefly
Rome, Sicily, Venice, and some cathedrals of France.
The statue represented
Cataldus clad in pontifical vestments, bearing in his left hand a crozier,
while his right hand was outstretched as if imparting a benediction. On certain
feasts the statue was washed, the water used being afterwards distributed among
the faithful. It was treasured by votaries of the Saint as fruitful of
wonderful cures.
On May 9th, the
anniversary vigil of the third translation of the relics, this statue is borne
through the streets of Tarantum in solemn procession, in which celebration the
citizens and peasantry of the surrounding districts take part in immense
crowds. In seasons of drought, when oftentimes the vineyards and crops of
Calabria are threatened with ruin, we are told that the presence of this
venerated statue, carried over the parched plains, is often followed by
beneficent falls of rain, which avert the dreaded loss.
The magnificent chapel,
at the Gospel side of the Altar in the Cathedral of Tarantum, was erected in
the seventeenth century by the Prince-Bishop, Thomas Carraciolo. It was
designed after the Pantheon in Rome, and subsequently enriched with the richest
mosaics and marbles, carved with choicest architectural skill. The shrine of
the statue of the Saint is one of the finest specimens of the Rococo style to
be found in any monument in Italy. So late as 1892, the Archbishop of Tarantum
had the figure of the Saint, to which so much veneration is attached, still
further adorned, and at considerable expense. And so it is, as we gather from
these details, devotion to the Irish Apostle of the Adriatic City not only
lived, but has grown warmer in the hearts of his adopted children, as each
successive age rolls on.
The miracles, which, like
beams of heavenly light, gleam through the pages of his life, never ceased in
the land he blessed and sanctified. And this, although well nigh fourteen and a
half centuries have passed since, footsore and weary, he asked his way from the
little dumb shepherdess, and restored sight to the blind man at the gate of
Tarantum.
We have alluded to the
places, far from the scenes of his labours, to which the faith, which Cataldus
preached in the crowded marts of Tarantum was carried by his hearers. In the
Italian cities of Naples, Corato, Lecce, Cattanello, Patignano, and numberless
sister-towns, churches and shrines have been raised to his honour. At Rimini,
where Saint Antony once preached from the sands to the fishes of the sea, the
parochial church is dedicated to our Irish saint. In Viterbo, of apostolic
fame, again Cataldus is highly venerated. Far from the confines of Italy, in
the French city of Sens – whither the craft of the silk weaver was brought by
the traders of Tarantum – the parish church claims our saint as its patron.
Many towns over the southern Continent bear his name, and it is also
perpetuated in a well-known spot in the island of Malta.
In connection with our
story many of us will have shared, at least in spirit, a few months since, in
the ceremonies which took place in the churches of the Irish Jesuits in celebrating
the Canonisation of the latest Saint added to the catalogue of the sainted sons
of Saint Ignatius – Blessed Bernardino Realino, beautified in 1895, canonised
in June 1947.
He was, as we may
remember, the Apostle of Lecce in Italy. In that time-honoured city the most
venerable shrine of the many shrines of Cataldus stands in the midst of the
Campo Santo, or cemetery outside the walls. It was erected in 1181 by the pious
Count Tancred of Lecce. Here during the forty years of his Apostolate, Realino,
no doubt, often prayed, and poured out his soul in supplication to that august
Queen, that sweet Madonna, whose praises and whose glory Cataldus bore from the
valley of our Irish Blackwater Valley to the shores of the Adriatic Sea.
Our pen is stealing on
and it threatens to glide beyond the limits of our task. The story of Cataldus
will, we trust, be a welcome guest amongst our Irish readers. They will, we
hope, agree with us that it is one of the most fascinating memoirs of our
Saints. May it also be fruitful of reflection and instruction. Perhaps it may
suggest to some who are blessed with fortune or endowed with education and
accomplishments to follow, even in a remote way, in the footsteps of our great
Saint, and not allow their talents, which must be accounted for, to lie buried
in the field. May it also inspire many of the young Levites of our Seminaries
with an ardent vocation to spread the Faith in foreign lands. May the bright
example of Cataldus of Lismore teach them to trample under foot all temptations
to ungenerous and inordinate love of home and kindred, and urge them to cross
land and sea, leaving behind them for ever, like Cataldus, the land they love
above all things after God, to bring the Gospel and Cross of Christ to souls
seated in the darkness of heresy and paganism. But we will pray too, that like
Cataldus, on foreign shores, they may never, never, never forget dear old
Ireland, God’s chosen island of Apostles, Saints and Scholars!
PRAYER
O Blessed Cataldus!
Kindle more brightly than ever in the hearts of Holy Erin’s youths and maidens,
the flame of vocation for foreign missions. Kindle it too, in the hearts of
young people of those lands, which Irish feet have touched. Teach them to brave
the pangs of separation from home and kindred, and to encounter every privation
and death itself, if needs be, to spread the name and knowledge of Christ
Crucified and of His Blessed Mother Mary. Amen.
– text taken from Saint Cataldus, Known as Cathal or San Cataldo,
by A Pilgrim; published 1959 by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland;
originally published by the Irish Messenger Office
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-cataldus-known-as-cathal-or-san-cataldo-by-a-pilgrim/
Statue
of St. Catadlo by Virglio Mortet
Statua
di san Cataldo presso la Cattedrale di San Cataldo a Taranto
Statue des Heiligen St. Cataldo, Bischof von Taranto (Apulien) vor der Kathedrale San Cataldo in Taranto, Apulien, Italien. Ursprünglich war er ein irische Mönch. Sein Kloster lag im südirischen Lismore, Grafschaft Waterford. Nach einer Pilgerreise nach Jerusalem strandete er und sein Schiff auf der Rückfahrt nahe der Stadt Taranto, deren Bürger ihn zu ihrem Bischof wählen ließen. Zu seinen Ihm zugeschriebenen Wundern gehört der Schutz der Stadt Taranto vor der Pest und vor Überschwemmungen, die anscheinend in den benachbarten Gebieten eingetreten wären.
San Cataldo di
Rachau Vescovo
VII sec.
Nato in Irlanda
all'inizio del secolo VII, dopo essere stato monaco e poi abate del monastero
di Lismore, fondato dal vescovo Cartagine, Cataldo divenne vescovo di Rachau.
Durante un peilegrinaggio in Terra Santa, morì a Taranto, nella cui cattedrale
fu sepolto e dimenticato. Nel 1094, durante la ricostruzione del sacro
edificio, che era stato distrutto dai Saraceni, fu ritrovato il suo corpo, come
indicava chiaramente una crocetta d'oro su cui era inciso il suo nome e quello
della sede episcopale. Questo reperto, che si conserva insieme col corpo ha
permesso di stabilire che il santo visse nel secolo VII e erroneamente, quindi,
i tarantini lo considerarono loro vescovo, anzi il protovescovo. nominato da s.
Pietro apostolo. Il 10 maggio ricorre la festa di Cataldo, che è patrono della
città bimare ed è venerato, oltre che in Irlanda, sua patria, nell'Italia
Meridionale e insulare. A Modena gli è intitolata una chiesa parrocchiale e
Supino, cittadina del Lazio meridionale, è uno dei centri del suo
culto. (bss)
Emblema: Bastone
pastorale
Martirologio
Romano: Presso Taranto, san Cataldo, vescovo e pellegrino, che si ritiene
venuto dalla Scozia.
Nato in Irlanda
all'inizio del secolo VII, dopo essere stato monaco e poi abate del monastero
di Lismore, fondato dal vescovo Cartagine, Cataldo divenne vescovo di Rachau. Durante
un peilegrinaggio in Terra Santa, morì a Taranto, nella cui cattedrale fu
sepolto e dimenticato.
Nel 1094, durante la
ricostruzione del sacro edificio, che era stato distrutto dai Saraceni, fu
ritrovato il suo corpo, come indicava chiaramente una crocetta d'oro su cui era
inciso il suo nome e quello della sede episcopale. Questo reperto, che si
conserva insieme col corpo ha permesso di stabilire che il santo visse nel
secolo VII e erroneamente, quindi, i tarantini lo considerarono loro vescovo,
anzi il protovescovo. nominato da s. Pietro apostolo. Il 10 maggio ricorre la
festa di Cataldo, che è patrono della città bimare ed è venerato, oltre che in
Irlanda, sua patria, nell'Italia Meridionale e insulare. A Modena gli è
intitolata una chiesa parrocchiale e Supino, cittadina del Lazio meridionale, è
uno dei centri del suo culto.
Autore: Giuseppe
Carata
_(Taranto).jpg)
Statue
of St. Cataldo bishop (Taranto)
Statue
des Heiligen St. Cataldo, Bischof von Taranto (Apulien). Ursprünglich war er ein irische
Mönch. Sein Kloster lag im südirischen Lismore, Grafschaft Waterford. Nach einer Pilgerreise nach Jerusalem
strandete er und sein Schiff auf der Rückfahrt nahe der Stadt Taranto, deren
Bürger ihn zu ihrem Bischof wählen ließen. Zu seinen Ihm zugeschriebenen
Wundern gehört der Schutz der Stadt Taranto vor der Pest und vor
Überschwemmungen, die anscheinend in den benachbarten Gebieten eingetreten
wären.
Pur essendo di origini
irlandesi, San Cataldo è molto venerato nell’Italia meridionale,
particolarmente in Puglia e nella Ciociaria (Basso Lazio). Cataldo (dal
germanico hatu e wald, significa “forte in guerra, valoroso”) nasce in Irlanda,
a Munster, tra il 610 e il 620. La sua famiglia è nobile, convertita al
Cristianesimo. Cataldo viene educato alla preghiera, ad essere ubbidiente e ad
avere compassione dei bisognosi. Studente brillante ed incline alla
spiritualità, diventa insegnante universitario di successo. Alla perdita dei
genitori dona l’intera eredità ai poveri. Viene, poi, ordinato sacerdote, messo
alla guida di un monastero e nominato vescovo.
Intraprende un viaggio in
Terra Santa (Palestina) nei luoghi dove visse Gesù. Qui sente una voce che, con
insistenza, lo esorta a recarsi a Taranto, in Italia, per compiere la sua
missione di evangelizzazione. Cataldo ubbidisce. Mentre sta navigando sulla
nave diretta in Italia, si scatena un violento maremoto e quando le onde
altissime e il vento impetuoso stanno per travolgere l’imbarcazione, Cataldo
invoca Dio lanciando il suo anello contro la tempesta che, all’improvviso, si
placa. Si narra che nel punto in cui cadde l’anello, nel Mar Grande di Taranto,
sia nato un “citro” (sorgente d’acqua dolce) che prenderà il nome di “Anello di
San Cataldo”.
Il prete irlandese sbarca
sulle coste pugliesi in località Marina di San Cataldo (Lecce) e si reca a
Taranto, afflitta dalla mancanza di fede perché devastata dall’invasione dei
Barbari. Alle porte della città incontra una pastorella muta alla quale fa
riacquistare la parola e ad un fanciullo cieco ridona la vista. L’eco dei suoi
miracoli arriva a Taranto che comincia ad acclamarlo. Cataldo manda sacerdoti
nei vari villaggi, fonda nuove chiese, aiuta e consiglia i poveri, le vedove, i
fanciulli, gli oppressi dalla miseria fisica e spirituale. Compie miracoli
anche nei paesi vicini e libera Corato (Bari) dalla peste.
Nel 685, lontano dalla
sua patria, si spegne a Taranto e viene sepolto nella cattedrale della città.
Persone malate, al tocco del suo corpo esanime, guariscono. Patrono di Taranto
e di tanti altri comuni italiani, grandi festeggiamenti vengono a lui dedicati
ogni 10 maggio a Supino (Frosinone), in Ciociaria, territorio dove numerosi
paesi hanno San Cataldo come patrono. A Supino, in particolare, sorge il
Santuario di San Cataldo, oggi meta di migliaia di pellegrini. San Cataldo
viene invocato da chi soffre di ernia e protegge contro i disastri naturali e
la siccità.
Autore: Mariella
Lentini
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/52700
.JPG)
Statua
di San Cataldo che si venera nel Duomo di San Cataldo (CL)
Cataldo, il cui nome
significa “forte in battaglia”, nacque a Canty, in Irlanda, tra il 610 e il
620. Discendeva da una famiglia benestante, i suoi genitori si chiamavano Eucho
e Achlena, ma ben presto abbandonò il mondo per entrare nel monastero di Lismore,
per porsi sotto la guida spirituale e scientifica di San Carthagh. Alla morte
di questi nel 637, Cataldo gli succedette sia nella direzione del monastero che
della rinomata scuola. Pervenne poi all’ episcopato in modo insolito, alla
morte cioè di Meltride, duca dei Desii, il quale lo aveva accusato di
stregoneria, a causa dei suoi miracoli.
Così Cataldo, intorno al
670, fu nominato Vescovo di Rachau. Circa un decennio dopo, condividendo lo
spirito missionario, tipico di San Colombano, ed il desiderio di pellegrinaggio
a Roma e ai Luoghi Santi partì dall’ Irlanda. Si trattava di un viaggio che
aveva lo scopo di rinvigorire la sua fede. Sostò a Roma, dove visitò le tombe
degli Apostoli e le Basiliche. Intraprese quindi il cammino per i Luoghi Santi.
Durante il viaggio di ritorno, a causa di un naufragio, Cataldo approdò in
Puglia, probabilmente in una località della costa ionica poco distante da
Taranto, quindi si recò nella città. Secondo la pia tradizione, il Santo
sarebbe giunto a Taranto per volere divino: durante il soggiorno nei Luoghi
Santi, mentre era prostrato sul Santo Sepolcro, gli apparve Gesù dicendogli:
«Catalde vade Tarentum!» «Cataldo vai a Taranto!» per rievangelizzare la città
ormai in mano al paganesimo, a causa delle incursioni di Barbari e Musulmani.
L’ arrivo di Cataldo a
Taranto fu accompagnato da diversi fatti miracolosi. E qui, dove il popolo
volle porlo sulla cattedra vescovile vacante, egli compì la sua opera di
evangelizzazione, facendo abbattere i templi pagani e soccorrendo i bisognosi.
Morì a Taranto intorno all’ anno 685 l’ 8 di marzo, venne sepolto sotto l’
impianto della Cattedrale e lì il suo corpo fu dimenticato per parecchi anni, a
causa delle continue distruzioni cui fu sottoposta la città.
Il 10 maggio 1071, mentre
si scavavano le fondamenta per la riedificazione della Cattedrale, distrutta
dai Saraceni, nel luogo dove una volta esisteva una cappella dedicata a San
Giovanni di Galilea, venne ritrovato il corpo del Santo. Fu riconosciuto da una
croce d’ oro con la scritta: “Cataldus Rachau”, cioè Cataldo Vescovo di Rachau.
Il santo corpo fu collocato sotto l’ altare maggiore della nuova Cattedrale. Da
allora la devozione verso il Santo ebbe grande diffusione non solo in Puglia,
ma anche in altre regioni d’ Italia.
SOURCE : http://www.cattedraletaranto.com/biografia/
Chapelle
San Cataldo à Tarente
CATALDO, santo
di * - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 22 (1979)
Patrono di Taranto,
nacque in Irlanda, nel Munster - forse a Canty, nella diocesi di Waterford -,
nella prima metà del sec. VII, da famiglia assai religiosa, di agiate
condizioni sociali. Ricevette la sua educazione nel celebre monastero di
Lismore, fondato non molto tempo prima, nel 633, da s. Carthagh. Nel monastero,
che era già allora uno dei più importanti centri di evangelizzazione e di
civilizzazione dell'isola, e che manteneva stretti rapporti con i maggiori
centri culturali e religiosi del continente, C., compiuti i suoi studi, e dopo
aver distribuito tra i poveri il patrimonio ereditato dal padre, rimase come
maestro. La sua grande pietà e la voce dei miracoli che si diceva andasse
compiendo gli guadagnarono ben presto la venerazione del popolo e la fama di
santo taumaturgo; ma fu proprio la voce dei miracoli da lui operati a provocare
i sospetti del duca dei Desii, Meltrid, il quale lo accusò di arti magiche e
stregoneria presso il re del Munster. Arrestato e gettato in prigione, C. venne
tuttavia liberato dopo qualche tempo in seguito - si disse - a due eventi
prodigiosi: la morte improvvisa di Meltrid e l'apparizione di due angeli al re.
Turbato, il re stesso si indusse a scegliere C. come vescovo per la sede di
Rachau; volle inoltre dotare la mensa vescovile delle rendite degli antichi
possedimenti di Meltrid.
Non siamo informati sui
particolari dell'attività pastorale svolta da C. in questo suo primo
episcopato: la Vita usa, in proposito, espressioni molto generiche.
D'altro canto, la sede stessa di Rachau non appare menzionata in altre fonti a
noi note, ed è stata identificata dagli studiosi ora con Rathan, ora con
Shánrahan, ora - e questa sembra l'ipotesi più probabile - con Shanraghan,
località situata ad ovest di Clogheen, nel South Tipperary.
Dopo alcuni anni di
ministero, comunque, C. lasciò la diocesi e l'Irlanda per compiere un
pellegrinaggio in Palestina; e lì avrebbe voluto fermarsi per il resto dei suoi
giorni, allo scopo di condurre una vita di solitudine, di preghiera e di
rinuncia. Non poté tuttavia appagare il suo desiderio: la leggenda dice che fu
indotto da una apparizione a recarsi in Italia dove avrebbe dovuto riportare
"ad catholicae fidei firmitatem" il popolo di Taranto che, già un
tempo convertito dall'apostolo Pietro e dal suo discepolo Marco, era tornato
allora agli antichi errori. Dopo un viaggio fortunoso, toccato il litorale
adriatico dell'Italia, C. sbarcò ad Otranto e si diresse a piedi verso Taranto.
"Ad portum Hydrunti
perveniunt flatu prospero succedente",precisa il biografo, dopo aver
narrato le peripezie incontrate nella navigazione dal santo e dai suoi
compagni. Alcuni studiosi hanno avanzato però l'ipotesi che egli fosse invece
sbarcato presso Lecce, nella rada che da lui prende il nome; mentre, secondo
altri, avrebbe fatto naufragio nel golfo stesso di Taranto, appena doppiato il
capo di Santa Maria di Leuca; secondo altri ancora sarebbe naufragato durante
il viaggio verso la Palestina.
Giunto a Taranto, la cui
sede era vacante da molti anni, C. venne eletto vescovo per comune consenso del
clero e del popolo, dopo uno strepitoso miracolo compiuto al suo arrivo, alla
porta della città. Da allora, per quindici anni, sino alla morte, resse la
diocesi di Taranto con sollecitudine di padre e di apostolo, dando esempio di
pietà, di zelo religioso, di rigore di vita. La predicazione del Vangelo e la
conversione dei pagani furono gli obbiettivi della sua opera pastorale: a
questo fine curò la formazione culturale e religiosa dei sacerdoti e dei
chierici dei vari Ordini, che assegnò alle diverse chiese di Taranto e dei
paesi circonvicini; volle osservata la liturgia e la recitazione dell'ufficio.
Consumato dalla vita di penitenza e di sacrificio, morì l'8 marzo di un anno
imprecisato, tra la fine del sec. VII e gli inizi dell'VIII, dopo aver rivolto
ai rappresentanti del clero e del popolo, che si erano stretti al suo
capezzale, un appello a continuare nella fede la sua opera.
Il corpo, composto in un
"sepulchrum marmoreum mirae pulchritudinis",venne solennemente
inumato - come era stata volontà di C. - sotto il pavimento del duomo, "in
parte orientali, in loco qui dicitur S. Iohannis in Galilaea",in
corrispondenza dell'attuale battistero. Il monumento, del quale si era perduto
il ricordo dopo la distruzione di Taranto compiuta dai Saraceni nel 927,
affiorò il 10 maggio 1071, durante i lavori di scavo per le fondamenta della
nuova cattedrale voluta dal vescovo Drogone. Avvisato che si era scoperta sotto
il pavimento dell'antica basilica "tumbam marmoream satis pulchram" -
così riferisce l'autore della Inventio -, il presule, alla presenza
di una gran folla di clero e di fedeli, "accepto fossorio, tumbam
aperit",e i presenti poterono vedere "sanctas reliquias,
rubicundiores (ut legitur) ebore antiquo. Crucem inveniunt auream, nomen sancti
Latinis litteris designantem". Riconosciute nelle reliquie i resti di uno
dei suoi antichi predecessori, Dragone fece collocare l'arca sotto l'altare
maggiore della nuova cattedrale. Le reliquie, di cui fu compiuta una
ricognizione nel 1107 dal vescovo Rainaldo, vennero traslate nel 1151 in una
cappella particolare, fatta costruire dall'arcivescovo Geraldo; nel 1657,
infine, Tommaso Caracciolo fece erigere in onore del santo una nuova e più
sfarzosa cappella (il cosiddetto cappellone), dove fece trasferire i resti
di C., che vi sono tuttora venerati. Il ritrovamento e le successive
traslazioni delle spoglie mortali di C. furono accompagnate da miracoli e
segnarono le tappe della propagazione del culto del santo, che, proclamato
patrono di Taranto, fu oggetto, a partire dal sec. XII, di una venerazione
assai diffusa e ancora viva in tutta Italia, in specie quella centromeridionale
e insulare, e in Irlanda, sua patria d'origine. La sua festa viene celebrata il
10 maggio.
Tutte le notizie su C. si
traggono da due composizioni relativamente tarde, comunque non anteriori al
sec. XII: la Vita beati Cataldi archiepiscopi Tarentini (Bibliotheca
hagiographica Latina, n. 1652), di autore anonimo, e la Inventio et
translatio an. 1151, et miracula (ibid., n. 1653), opera
composita, della cui prima parte - la Inventio propriamente detta - è
autore un nobile tarantino, Berlingerio, di poco posteriore al primo
ritrovamento delle reliquie del santo. Questa circostanza, unita al fatto che
la Vita, per quanto diffusa e ricca di particolari edificanti, segue gli
schemi propri della letteratura agiografica, e che la Inventio, nel suo
prologo, fa di C. il primo vescovo di Taranto, consacrato da s. Pietro in uno
dei suoi viaggi apostolici, ha indotto alcuni storici della Chiesa (Lanzoni,
Cappelletti) a respingere come indegni di fede i particolari biografici
contenuti nella Vita e nella Inventio e ad espungere il
nome di C. dalla lista episcopale tarantina. Essi ammettono, tuttavia, che il
santo, monaco irlandese e vescovo di una diocesi dell'isola, sia realmente
esistito, e che sia morto a Taranto durante un pellegrinaggio in Terrasanta. Ma
la Vita dice espressamente che C. fu monaco a Lismore, che fu
discepolo di s. Carthagh, che fu vescovo di Rachau e poi di Taranto: tali affermazioni
non possono venire impugnate esclusivamente per ciò che riguarda gli ultimi
quindici anni della vita del santo, solo perché le fonti italiane coeve - per
altro assai lacunose - non ricordano un vescovo di Taranto di questo nome.
Quanto alla Inventio, la relazione di Berlingerio contiene particolari che
trovano conferma nei reperti archeologici. Nella cattedrale di Taranto viene
conservata con la massima venerazione una piccola croce benedizionale d'oro,
che reca su di una delle sue facce il nome di C., inciso in caratteri maiuscoli
riferibili ai secc. VII-VIII. Tale crocetta non può essere che quella
ritrovata, secondo la testimonianza di Berlingerio, nella tomba di C.,
"nomen sancti Latinis litteris designantem". C. visse dunque non prima
del terzo decennio del sec. VII, e la sua morte deve attribuirsi alla fine del
sec. VII o agli inizi del sec. VIII, in piena conformità con le notizie fornite
dalla Vita; e il suo pontificato tarantino deve porsi tra quello del
vescovo Germano, ricordato nel 680, e il vescovo Cesario, attestato nel 743.
Sul rovescio della
ricordata crocetta aurea una seconda mano ha aggiunto, in caratteri riferibili
al sec. XI, l'iscrizione CATALDUS RA:, completata in seguito, da una mano del
secolo successivo, con la sillaba CHAV, a designare con maggior precisione il
luogo di provenienza del santo. Lo Stornaiolo ha avanzato l'ipotesi che tale
iscrizione sia stata aggiunta in occasione del primo ritrovamento della tomba
di C., e completata nella ricognizione del 1107 o nella traslazione del 1151.
Nel 1924lo Hofmeister ha
pubblicato un Sermo de inventione sancti Cataldi confessoris, composto tra
il 1094 e il 1174, che narra la traslazione delle reliquie del santo, da una
chiesa posta fuori delle mura della città a quella tarantina di S. Biagio. A C.
sono attribuite alcune Profezie, riguardanti soprattutto la famiglia
regnante a Napoli, contenute in un codice scoperto, sepolto sotto una croce
plumbea, nel 1492 nella chiesa di S. Pietro della Porta a Taranto. Di tali
profezie, ovviamente apocrife, si trova menzione in diverse cronache italiane
della fine del sec. XV (cfr. Tommasini, p. 349).
Fonti e Bibl.: Acta
Sanctorum... Maii II, Parisiis 1866, coll. 569-577; Sermo de
inventione sancti Cataldi confessoris, in A. Hofmeister, Der Sermo de
inventione sancti Kataldi. Zur Gesch. Tarents am Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts,
in Münchener Museum für Philol. des Mittelalters und Renaissance,
IV(1924), pp. 107-114; L. Cassinelli, Vita e memorie di s. C. …,
Napoli 1717; F.Ughelli-N. Coleti, Italia sacra..., IX, Venetiis 1721,
coll. 120-125; B. Moroni, Vita e miracoli di s. C. vescovo...,
Napoli 1779; J. O'Henlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, V, Dublin 1875, pp.
185-205; C. Lo Jodice, Mem. stor. di s. C., vescovo e
confessore, Bologna 1879; G. Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia..., XXI,
Venezia 1870, p. 132; C. Stornaiolo, Crocetta aurea opistografa della
cattedr. di Taranto, in Nuovo Bull. di archeol. sacra,
XXI(1915), pp. 83-93; G. Blandamura, Un cimelio del secolo VII esistente
nel duomo di Taranto, Lecce 1917; F. Lanzoni, Le diocesi d'Italia..., I,
Faenza 1923, p. 79; A. Hofmeister, Der Sermo de inventione sancti Kataldi…,
in Münchener Museum für Philol. des Mittelalters und Renaissance,
IV(1924), pp. 101-106, J. F. Kenney, Sources for the Early History of
Ireland, New York 1929, p. 185; A. M. Tommasini, I santi irlandesi in
Italia, Milano 1932, pp. 338-349; A Dictionary of Christian Biography, a
cura di W. Smith-H. Wace, London 1877-1887, I, pp. 421 s.; Dict. d'Hist. et
de Géogr. Ecclés., IX, col. 1490; Enc. catt., III,
col.1064; Bibliotheca Sanctorum, III, s. l. (ma Roma) 1963, coll. 950 ss.
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/santo-cataldo_(Dizionario-Biografico)
Voir aussi : https://www.ecatholic2000.com/cts/untitled-450.shtml
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cataldus-rachau-st
https://www.catholicireland.net/saintoftheday/st-cathal-of-taranto-7th-8th-century/
