ALFERIO, SANTO

ALFERIO, Saint. — Founder and first abbot of the Cluniac monastery of Cava dei Tirreni, born in 931, according to the life written in the first half of the 11th century, from a noble Salernitan family, and died on 12 April 1050. Having fallen gravely ill in the monastery of S. Michele della Chiusa (Cottian Alps) while traveling to France on behalf of Guaimaro IV, he decided upon the religious state, entering the abbey of Cluny, then governed by St. Odilo. After several years, requested by Guaimaro of Salerno, he returned to his homeland with the task of directing monasteries, which he failed to reform. Retiring around 1011 to a cave on Monte Finestra to lead an eremitical life, he later welcomed a few disciples—no more than twelve—for whom he built a small monastery dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, which in 1025 obtained sovereign recognition from the princes of Salerno. He died, leaving his successor Leo of Lucca the faculty to admit into the monastery all who wished to embrace the religious life (v. Cava dei Tirreni).