Alferius, Saint

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, of a noble Salernitan family, and died on 12 April 1950. Having fallen seriously ill at the monastery of S. Michele della Chiusa (Cottian Alps), while travelling to France on behalf of Guaimaro IV, he resolved to embrace the religious state, entering the abbey of Cluny, then governed by S. Odilone. After some years, summoned by Guaimaro of Salerno, he returned to his homeland with the task of directing monasteries which he was unable to reform. Having withdrawn around 1011 into a cave on Monte Finestra to lead an eremitical life, he subsequently received several disciples—no more than twelve—for whom he built a small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 to his successor Leone di Lucca the faculty of receiving into the monastery all those who wished to embrace religious life (v. CAVA DEI TIRRENI).