by Vittorino Fittante

Beginning in the 8th century, numerous groups of eastern monks were forced to leave the Byzantine Empire because of the iconoclast controversy following the edict of Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-740), which his successors continued to enforce. They sought refuge in Sicily. A portion of them then crossed the straits and spread out in Calabria, where they spread the imposing phenomenon of Calabrese-Greek monasticism, sometimes called inaccurately “Basilian” monasticism. The monks traveled throughout the region over the same roads frequented by travelers and merchants of every kind, particularly the ancient Via Popilia which was an artery that crossed the Plain of S. Eufemia. The evidence of their travels and the result of their migrations is seen in numerous holy retreats, shrines and monasteries that they scattered throughout the region, where the land is particularly adapted for the ideal monastic life that they embraced. Fiore da Cropani writes, “D. Apollinare (in his Life of Saint Nicodemus) conjectures that one could once count 400 such places in Calabria.”

An imaginary reconstruction of the Benedictine Abbey of S. Eufemia
right after the earthquake of 1638 that destroyed it entirely

Cropani himself identified 104 such places, 14 of which were still in operation in his time. In the life of the people, these holy places were important centers, that functioned as guideposts in practical and spiritual matters: “tillage, cultivation, planting of vegetables, organization for production and trade, establishment of centers for habitation initially characterized initially by small farmhouses, political and cultural coordination of the population (everything was evolving) all in the name and under the aegis of a strong religious identity.”

Having arrived in the Plain of S. Eufemia, before continuing north along the valley of the Savuto River to reach the “Eparchy of Mercurion“ (part of the Pollino area), these monks established many retreats and holy places in the woods, especially in the “Carra” forest, which covered a good part of the plain, reaching onto the Isthmus of Squillace-S. Eufemia and also carpeting the neighborhood of Mount Reventino. Thus, the Calabria that the Normans were to conquer became seeded throughout by centers of the Byzantine rite, even though they were in areas that were under the government of local dioceses.

At first, the dioceses persecuted those churches that followed the eastern rite, fearful of ties that those churches might have to Byzantium, and started a “Latinization” effort by founding numerous monasteries that employed the Latin rite and language. Their purpose was to serve as a counterweight to the eastern rite, with the goal of definitively separating the eastern rite churches from Byzantium, and reducing the great influence that their monks had among the people.