Many eastern monks started to emigrate from the Byzantine Empire and went to Sicily, Calabria, Lucania and Campania in the first half of the VI century, because of the Slavic invasions in the Corinth gulf and then moved from Syria, Libya and Egypt because of the first Arabic invasions and in the VIII century, after the crisis and terrible iconoclastic persecutions triggered, in the 726, by the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian and, in 754, by his son Constantine V.
The presence of Byzantine monks in Southern Italy was attested for the first time in the VI century. These monks were “military chaplains” and followed the troupes of the commander Narses during the Greek-Gothic war.
Other monks arrived in Southern Italy and Sicily thanks to makeshift boats because these areas had a warm climate and many favourable geophysical and morphological features and here, because of cultural reasons such as the maintenance of the use of the Greek language, they started to practice all forms of ascetic life and maintained the Christian message according to the eastern tradition of which they were witnesses and promoters. Monastic communities soon influenced and contributed to economical and social development and became a beacon for the indigenous population that relied on them to obtain material support and spiritual comfort.
Monasticism, that settled in Southern Italy and Sicily, had thus Greek origins and its source of historical, cultural, religious and spiritual inspiration had always been Constantinople that, during these centuries, has given a massive contribution to saving the cultural and book and humanistic and scientific heritage of our island. In Sicily, during the five centuries from Gregory the Great to the age of Norman domination, all the monastic experiences can be considered as of oriental inspiration and the majority of those monks in the monasteries spoke greek.
The first Italian-greek Monasticism exponent was Saint Nilo of Rossano (Rossano 910 – Tusculum 29th September 1004) that went from Calabria to Tusculum, near Rome. Shortly after his death, in the area of Grottaferrata, his disciple Saint Bartholomew the Younger (Rossano 981 – Grottaferrata 1055) founded the Monastery dedicated to Mary, Mother of God, nowadays the only community of monks of oriental rite in Italy that are under the influence of San Nile.
The written sources differentiate three forms of Italian-greek monasticism: it is, originally, eremitic and the monk lives in complete solitude, it then becomes lavriotic and finally cenobitic when the monk lives in a cenoby, from the greek κοινόβιον, comparative of κοινός “common” and βίος “life”, submitted to the superior authority (the hegumen) and shares everything with his brothers.
From the VIII to the IX century there were a lot of Byzantine monasteries in Southern Italy, as well as other less-known caves and eremitical locations. The “laure” or “lavre” were monastic cells, often rupestrian, located around a church or a common place where the monks lived an eremitical life even though they were in a cenoby. Indeed, in the saint monks’ biographies, the “rocky solitude” is considered the highest level of human perfection, achieved thanks to the segregation from the rest of the world, a sort of daily resistance to temptations and Evil.
The Greek monasteries in Sicily were economically independent entities, they had lands, yards to cultivate and water supply systems for many necessities and to cultivate lands; these monks were also ducts, therefore they were chosen by popes, bishops and local lords to be their advisers or ambassadors.
The Italian-greek Monasticism’s principal exponent in Sicily was Saint Elias The Younger or of Enna (Enna, 822-823 - Thessaloniki, 17th august 903), the first one that we have certain pieces of information from his biographies in comparison with the contemporary Saint Cremete, a saint anchorite monk that is worshipped in Francavilla.
In the IX century, when Sicily was conquered by the Arabs, the monasticism of oriental rite in Southern Italy, still lavriotic and eremitical, became a small tolerated minority.
At the arrival of Normans, from 1061 onwards, the rebirth of cenobites happened. Authors of the rechristianisation, these enjoyed privileges and could also manage themselves independently thanks to the new dominators’ donations that provided full freedom as a sign of their supremacy in their relations with the Church of Rome. Moreover, they economically contributed to the foundation of reconstruction of abandoned monasteries until 1131, when it was founded, under the will of Roger II and with the suggestion of Saint Bartholomew of Simeri (Simeri, more or less 1050- Rossano 19th august 1130) the Archimandrite of “Santissimo Salvatore”, a big confederation of 60 monasteries, with its headquarter in the Monastery of “Santissimo Salvatore” in “lingua phari” (literally the language of the lighthouse) of Messina, in the arcuated area, which construction started in 1131.
The major authority was the hegumen (the equivalent of the abbot in Latin monasteries): the founder and first hegumen was Saint Luke Archimandrite (Rossano, IX century- Messina, 27th February 1149) that was once a monk of Saint Mary of Patir and then he moved with other twelve duct monks to Rossano, in Sicily.
Part of the Archimandritate were the territories of Savoca, Casalvecchio, Pagliara, Locadi, Antillo and Misserio, Forza d’Agrò, Mandanici, Itala on the ionic coast, S. Gregory (of Gesso), Salice and S. Angelo (of Brolo) on the tyrrenic coast and during the sequent years other monasteries and rich feuds.
In 1874, thanks to the interest of the archaeologist Anthony Salinas, director of the Archeological Museum of Palermo and the restorers Joseph Patricolo and Francis Valenti, the Italian-greek monasteries of Valdemone have been catalogued, studied and restored. These places have also been freed from the sequent accretions and coatings to make visible the original wall surfaces with their textures.
These sites are listed by the abbot Rocco Pirri in “Sicilia Sacra”, a book published in 1643 and considered the most prestigious source of the Sicilian churches’ history.