Attalus
Acta Sanctorum, April 3
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/april/day-03/attalus.html
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ON SAINT ATTALUS, ABBOT,

OF THE ORDER OF SAINT BENEDICT, AT TAUROMENIUM IN SICILY.

ABOUT 800.

[Commentary]

Attalus, Benedictine Abbot, at Tauromenium in Sicily (Saint)

G. H.

A Chronicle of a certain Benedictine monk, composed about the year of Christ 1483, is frequently recommended in the monastic history of Pietro Ricordati da Buggiano, published at Rome in 1575; where this author calls his Chronicle an ancient one, which was then preserved in the library of Constantine Cajetan, Abbot, and was used by this man's brother Octavius Cajetan, [Memory in the Benedictine Chronicle,] and in volume 2 of *The Lives of the Sicilian Saints*, page 32, brings forward these words from the said Chronicle: "Saint Attalus, Abbot of the monastery situated at Tauromenium in Sicily, whose birthday is solemnly observed on the third day before the Nones of April." [and in the calendars of Cajetan,] The same Cajetan in his Sicilian Martyrology on this day, when he had treated of Saint Pancratius, Bishop of Tauromenium, who suffered martyrdom, of whom we also have treated, adds: "At the same place, Saint Attalus, Abbot of the Order of Saint Benedict," and celebrates the same Saint Attalus in the alphabetical Index of Sicilian Saints; then in the topical Index of the Saints of Tauromenium; likewise in the Index of Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict; finally, in the chronological Index, he reports Saint Attalus with the Saints who flourished around the year 800: that is, before the year 828, when the African Saracens occupied Sicily, as the same Cajetan notes in volume 2 of the *Lives of the Sicilian Saints*, cited page 32. Cajetan has been followed [and of others] by Ferrarius in his *General Catalogue*, Menard and Bucelin in their Benedictine Martyrologies. Would that that whole Benedictine Chronicle were extant in print; then we could more safely judge of its sincere truth.
