Saint Fantinus | |
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Born | c. 927 Calabria |
Died | 1000 Greece |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church |
Feast | August 30 |
Fantinus (Italian: Fantino) (c. 927–1000) was an Italian saint. He is sometimes called Fantinus of Calabria[1] or Fantinus the Younger (Fantino il Giovane) to distinguish him from Fantinus the Wonderworker (or the Elder), an earlier Calabrian saint.[2][3]
Born in Calabria in a locality described as being the "closest to Sicily",[2] Fantinus was introduced as a child to Saint Elias the Cave-Dweller.[4] Fantinus' parents were named George and Vriena.[2] Fantinus' spiritual education was entrusted to Elias, and Fantinus became a monk at the age of thirteen and worked as a cook and afterwards as a porter. At the age of thirty-three, he became a hermit in the region of Mount Mercurion in the north of Calabria. There, many monasteries and hermitages had been established under the Basilian rule. Fantinus lived a life of extreme asceticism, eating only raw vegetables, and occupying his time copying manuscripts.[4] He also experienced a vision of heaven and hell.[4]
Fantinus lived both as a hermit and as a monk and abbot. He subsequently convinced his aged parents, as well as his two brothers, Luke and Cosmas, and sister Caterina, to enter the monastic life. When he became a hermit, he left his brother Lucas in charge of the monastery for men he had founded. Though a hermit, he often returned from the wild in order to serve as a guide and spiritual teacher to disciples, such as Nilus the Younger and Nicodemus of Mammola.[2]