S. ALFIO
I was back in Catania before the 9th of May and began talking about S.
Alfio in the Teatro Machiavelli. One of the actors whose name is Volpes,
the one who did the listening father in the play about Rosina and the
good young man, is employed by day in the cathedral, his department being
the brass-work; he is therefore something of a hagiologist. He was going
on business to Lentini, which is situated to the south of Catania on the
way to Siracusa, it is the place where the three saintly brothers were
martyred, and there he bought for me a book--_Storia dei Martiri e della
Chiesa di Lentini_, by Sebastiano Pisano Baudo (Lentini: Giuseppe Saluta,
1898)--from which I have collected particulars for this story of the Life
of S. Alfio.
Towards the end of the first half of the third century after Christ, at
Prefetta in Gascony, the wealthy and noble Prince Vitale lived a life of
singular piety, united in matrimony to Benedetta di Locusta. Heaven had
blessed them with three sons, Alfio born in 230, Filiberto born one year
and eight months later and Cirino born one year and four months later
again. Prefetta was not only in Gascony, it was also in Aquitaine, and,
notwithstanding this, it was in Spain and also in the Abruzzi, which is a
region of Italy between Naples and Taranto, if I understand correctly.
Owing to its unsettled habits geographers do not mark it on the maps, but
they and the historians are agreed that it certainly existed, and perhaps
it exists still, if only in a Castellinarian sense. The interesting
point is that it was the birthplace of S. Alfio.
The noble and saintly Benedetta, having been brought up in the school of
sacrifice, ardently desired to die for the faith. Her husband placed no
obstacle in her way. She obtained an interview with the prefect, abused
his gods and awaited the sentence which took the form of decapitation.
Prince Vitale after the death of his wife was free to consecrate himself
to the education of his three sons. I expected to find that he had them
taught medicine, surgery and chemistry, but there is not a word about any
of these subjects. Evodio di Bisanzio, flying from country to country to
avoid the persecution of Massimino, happened upon Prefetta; he was
welcomed by Vitale, who appointed him tutor of his boys. Evodio was
learned in the sacred sciences, the Greek fables and how to live rightly.
These were the subjects which he taught to his pupils. Alfio copied out
the Books of the Prophets, Filiberto the Gospels and Cirino the Letters
of S. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. Thus they developed a manly
spirit, angelic habits and an intelligence, a piety, a devotion which are
the rare gifts of a few privileged souls.
Onesimo was their next tutor, a man of deep learning and a fervent
missionary who came to Prefetta with a following of thirteen or fourteen
disciples and boarded and lodged with Prince Vitale. He was more the
kind of tutor Vitale wanted for his boys. Onesimo had no sympathy with
flying from persecution; he took the view that it was not enough to copy
the sacred Books, his pupils must know how to sacrifice their frail
bodies for the glory of the Cross. He instructed them in the practical
work of martyrdom.
In the year 249, Decio ascended the imperial throne and issued an edict
against the Christians. Vitale and Onesimo heard of it and welcomed this
opportunity for the three brothers who swore on the ashes of their mother
that they would profit by it. They did not have to wait long.
Nigellione, the imperial minister, came to execute the decree. Onesimo
and his pupils, in spite of tortures, professed their unalterable faith
in the Cross and were sent to Rome together with fourteen other
Christians. Vitale, being thus freed from all family responsibilities,
exiled himself with his friends and awaited his end in a sacred retreat
so retired that our author does not specify it.
In Rome, Onesimo and his band of Christians suffered tortures. While in
prison S. Peter and S. Paul appeared to them, healed their wounds,
exhorted them to persevere and promised ultimate victory. On the seventh
day they were taken before Valeriano, the imperial minister. Failing, as
Nigellione had failed, to shake their faith, he sent them with a letter
to Diomede, Prince of Pozzuoli, telling him that if he could not win the
captives over from their new faith he was to put to death Onesimo and the
fourteen disciples by means of fierce tortures, and to send Alfio,
Filiberto and Cirino into Sicily to be dealt with according to
instructions contained in another letter addressed to the crafty
Tertullo, Governor of Sicily, at Lentini.
Diomede carried out his instructions. The Christians all refused to
sacrifice to the false gods. Onesimo died in consequence of an unusually
large stone being placed upon his chest, the fourteen disciples were
decapitated and Alfio, Filiberto and Cirino were handed over to fifty
soldiers under Captain Silvano, a man of a proud and cruel nature, and
taken in a ship to Messina.
The voyage occupied three days; they reposed in Messina for two hours and
then, chained together and barefooted, proceeded to Taormina, where
Tertullo happened to be hunting for Christians, and to him Captain
Silvano delivered the letter from Valeriano. Tertullo's instructions
were to make the most of his attractive appearance and his agreeable
manners and by means of cajolery to persuade the three holy brethren to
sacrifice to the gods of Rome; in case of failure he was to cause them to
suffer many and various tortures and then to deprive them of their lives.
Tertullo concocted a scheme worthy of the devil. No sooner were the
youths brought into his presence than he assumed the appearance of an
affectionate father, embraced them and inquired sympathetically about
their parents and their home. On their telling him they were Christians
he endeavoured, with apparent kindness, to turn them from a faith which
had brought them nothing but suffering. He promised that if they would
sacrifice to the gods of Rome they should enjoy the pleasures of a court
life. But there was none of the _Paris vaut bien une Messe_ about the
sons of the saintly Benedetta. They spurned his promises and continued
to declare themselves firm believers in the true Cross. Tertullo,
defeated and angry, thereupon showed himself in his true colours; he
dropped the affectionate parent and ordered the brothers to be tortured.
He then sent them with Captain Mercurio and a squadron of forty soldiers
to Lentini to await his return to that city.
At Mascali they were fatigued, especially Filiberto, who almost
succumbed. They prayed to the Omnipotent and, before they had risen from
their knees, the azure heavens became obscured, the wind blew, the
thunder roared, the lightning flashed and there was a great rain. The
forty soldiers fell upon their faces, frightened nearly to death, and in
the tempest onward came a venerable man, believed by all who saw him to
be S. Andrea. This personage restored the youths; whereupon the rain
ceased, the clouds dispersed, the heavens smiled again and the forty
soldiers rose from the ground declaring that the God worshipped by their
prisoners must be more powerful than they had supposed.
In those days the usual road from Taormina to Lentini passed along by the
seashore, but Captain Mercurio took the three brothers by an inland route
passing through Trecastagni, perhaps because the road by the shore was
encumbered with lava from an eruption of Etna which occurred in the year
251 or 252. When I came to this I thought of Diodorus Siculus and the
second Punic war, but I repressed the suspicion that the compiler of the
story was consciously borrowing a bit of local colour in order to get S.
Alfio to Trecastagni in a picturesque manner.
It was the end of August or the beginning of September in the year 252
when the three saints reached Trecastagni. Here they sat on a rock which
diversified the uniformity of the landscape, partook of food and reposed.
Exhilarated by a laughing sky of rarest beauty, the holy brethren
unloosed their tongues and sang hymns of joy and praise to the Lord for
that he had given them the strength and spirit to face their anticipated
martyrdom. On the spot where they reposed now stands the parish church
of Trecastagni.
The three saints proceeded to Catania, where they passed an uncomfortable
night singing hymns in an obscure prison, and at daybreak were taken on
towards Lentini. The river Simeto was in flood owing to the recent
abundant rain, which is perhaps a reference to the storm at Mascali; as
soon as the saints put their feet in the stream it shrank and they passed
over. Eight of the soldiers attempted to follow in their footsteps, but
a sudden rush of water engulfed them together with their horses; this
danger caused the remaining thirty-two soldiers to stay where they were,
and they patiently waited four days till they were fetched by their
comrades who, I suppose, had got over the river and employed the time in
drying their uniforms and recovering from their wetting, but at first I
feared they had been drowned.
Eight hundred paces to the north of Lentini the glorious brothers met a
young man of the Jewish religion who had eaten nothing for a month.
Captain Mercurio, having seen and been much touched by the portents
performed by his prisoners during the journey, begged them to restore the
youth. Immediately, with no assistance from anyone, the saints broke the
ropes that bound them, prayed to heaven, approached the sufferer, infused
new life into his exhausted frame and restored him to perfect health.
The youth and his parents confessed their faith in the Nazarene, Captain
Mercurio also declared himself converted and twenty of the soldiers,
dismounting from their horses, threw their arms on the ground and prayed
to be bound with chains since they now abhorred the false pagan gods and
intended for the future to worship only the God of the three brothers.
They entered Lentini on Wednesday the 3rd of September, 252, their hands
bound behind them, their heads uncovered and their feet bare, presenting
to the emotional crowd an appearance of great nobility. They were put in
prison with the twenty converted soldiers, tortured and starved; but a
venerable man girdled with grace and celestial light miraculously brought
food to them, embraced them and blessed them, their wounds were healed,
their strength was restored, their courage was reinforced. Their
tortures were increased after this, and so it went on till the 10th of
May, 253, when S. Alfio was killed by having his tongue pulled out, S.
Filiberto was burnt on a gridiron and S. Cirino was boiled in pitch and
bitumen.
Eight years later, in June, 261, Vitale in his retirement was cheered by
a visit from Neofito and Aquila, who brought to him, as tokens of the
martyrdom of his three sons, the mantle of Alfio, the girdle of Filiberto
and the veil of Cirino, saturated with blood.
The geographers write Trecastagne on the maps as though the village took
its name from Three Chestnut Trees, but the learned say it should be
Trecastagni--Tre Casti Agni, that is Three Chaste Lambs, after the three
saints who rested on the site of the parish church. Their memory is
perpetuated also at Mascali, Catania and Lentini. And they are adored at
Aci-reale, Pedara and at other places on the eastern slopes, whence the
faithful come to their shrine at Trecastagne on the 10th of May.