San Calogero | hermit, healer, cave dweller.

San Calogero | hermit, healer, cave dweller.  

San Calogero is the patron saint of the village we spend a lot of our Radici time in: Petralia Sottana. He is also a patron of many other villages throughout Sicily. He is honored and adored all over the island. 

Calogero was a hermit. That’s one known fact we have about this saint, but there isn’t a lot more written down. A hermit meaning he was someone who cave dwelled, outside of where people were living, and did a lot of his work within/in isolation.

San Calogero’s feast day is in June, and I like to think of him as our ancestral arts immersion patron. We land in the village just before his processione and festa, events that have been happening in this mountain village… for a long time. 

The history of Calogero is that he came from Calcedonia, not far from Constantinople. This was the time of Byzantine rule in Sicily.  He apparently arrived in Sicily after being persecuted in his homeland. Calogero is derived from the Greek words “Kalos-Gheros” which literally means “good-old”— so Calogero was known as the “good, old hermit/healer.” 

There is mixed research about this name, and questions have com up: was ‘calogero’ a title given to healers/hermits/ cave dwellers in general -  they all may have been called “A Calogero” - a good old person/elder with healing ability — and this saint represents a specific one that landed in this area and took home in a cave in nearby mountains (there is a Mount Calogero which is just outside Palermo and cusping the Madonie Mountains). It’s possible, but as time moves, we know him as one saint, but the chance he may have been one representive a cult of cave dwelling healers is there.

During this time period, approx the 5th century, Sicily was suffering from great famine, people were starving, there diseases were plaguing people, it was all around hard times, so it’s said Calogero arrived when the island and her people needed great healing.

He wandered around and landed in different places and stayed in local caves and did his work— It is recorded he was in places such as Scaccia, Noto, Agrigento, and of course Petralia Sottana, where we are rooted for Ancestral Arts. The people of this village believe he lived in the Madonie Mountains, and died there, and to this day the turn to him for healing and once a year they hold a week long celebration and adoration of him filled with ritual, prayer, processione and a huge party.

Some say he was originally from Ethiopia, but he died in Sicily, on Mount Calogero (this Mt. Calogero is located south, in Sciacca, there are a few of them scattered around the island which points to the possibility that there may have been many Calogeros) in 486 CE of natural causes. This particular region is filled with healing thermal vents and caves— places inside mountains that have been used therapeutically since the 5th century.

The steaming vents were considered sacred territory and Calogero entered into them and used them as dwelling/healing spaces, using the steam as a vehicle for healing.

He is also called L'eremita (the hermit) which is a word that represents the inner cave, the hermit card in tarot, the healing that can be done when we go deep within, to the places within, and then to emerge, to shine light and heal others with what we discover. Calogero was a cave/threshold worker, like so many of the other saints we know (Lucia, Agata, Rosalia…). 

Calogero is beloved to Petralia Sottana, and to Sicilians everywhere - no matter where they emigrated in the world, you will always find devotions to Calogero by the Sicilian diaspora.

He is invoked for all kinds of bodily healing, especially for joint disorders, arthritis, inflammation, and disabilities in general. Just by touching his statue you might find your body aches and pains vanish. 

Because Calogero worked miracles, one of the miracles is that he manifested was bread for the people to feed their hunger during famine. 

People who pilgrimage to his caves and sacred spots always brought offerings of bread — bread shaped into what they were asking for healing for— typically formed into anatomical shapes, like ex votos. For instance, if you needed support with heart issues, you’d form your bread into a heart shape. If we were having breathing issues, or needed grief support, you brought bread shaped as lungs. 

One of the things we’ve notice during the processione in Petralia, is that someone will be handing out little loaves of blessed bread— this bread represents the healing manna, the healing force, of Calogero. People might put these loaves on their altars, or eat them right then in there while walking the village (oftentimes barefoot) in gratitude for Calogero and his healing powers within the bread.

Sometimes the bread is plain, and sometimes you’ll get a loaf filled with fennel or sesame seeds. But the bread both represents our prayers and his answering them with the blessed bread.

Calogero is black-skinned and the statue of this village represents this. In other places, you’ll see him as a white man, but he was not white. He was a black/African saint. 

I read somewhere that he died (or one variation of him died) in the thermal caves of Sciacca - a place where he was known to heal. It also noted that when he first went to live in these particular caves, he supposedly “banished” the pagan spirits that lived there and he reclaimed the caves for christian spirits. I don’t know about that, or what that was all about  — but what I do know is that he most likely came with his own ancestral spirits, the spirits of his land:  African spirits. And he wove together the spirits of these two lands.There was no banishing. There was a coming together, held by Calogero, channeled by him, a part of him. The hermit isn’t alone. The hermit is entirely in communion with the spirits of the cave. When I think of this theory, I think of how important and potent it is when we bring our ancestral spirits with us, and invite other ancestral spirits to collaborate in our healing paths for community.

May we bring our ancestral and land spirits with us, wherever we go, and weave them together, in community.

Other offerings for San Calogero: chalices of wheat, loaves of bread, bay leaves, figs, and also your trust in him, offering him your devotion so that in return he will help you in your healing.

Saints are Ancestors. They were humans that lived on the edge, that did the work, that refused to stay quiet. They are also the ones that had some miracle recorded somewhere so they became sainted. But really all our ancestors are (could be) saints and all the saints are our ancestors. 

PROMPTS:

1.What are your healing intentions/prayers to this saint, this ancestor? What does your gut say to bring to him?

2.What do you need support in healing? How do you need support in being a healing portal for others?

3.What do you want to offer Calò, in return? Perhaps a penance, a beautiful gift back to him, as in relational, for healing support?

4. Considering the aspect of a hermit, where do you need to enter and be still, alone, quiet, especially for this winter season.  How can you benefit from learning how to hermit from Calogero?