BENEDICT THE MOOR, Saint. - Born around 1526 in San Fratello near Messina, to descendants of ancestors who had been slaves, brought to Sicily from Africa, and he was emancipated. Already among the companions with whom he pastured the flock, he was called the "Holy Moor" for his angelic disposition and his native dark complexion. Eager for penance, he joined the institute of the Hermits of Girolamo Lanza, whom he succeeded as superior. In 1562, when the institute was suppressed by Pius IV, he passed among the Friars Minor, in the convent of Santa Maria di Gesù in Palermo, humbly exercising the office of cook. Severe with himself, he was all affection for his confreres, who, admiring such great virtue, in 1578 elected him, although he was a lay brother, as guardian, then vicar and master of novices in the same convent, where he died on 4 April 1589. He was canonized by Pius VII on 24 May 1807, and Palermo chose him as patron, from as early as 1652. His feast falls on 4 April.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: B. Nicolosi, Vita di s. B. di San Fratello, Palermo 1907; G. da Capistrano, Vita di s. B. di San Fratello, Rome 1908; C. Michelessis-E. Fermendzin, Annales Minorum (continued by L. Wadding, XX, ed. Quaracchi 1933, pp. 64, 429-36; XXI, ibid. 1934, pp. 139-40; XXII, ibid. 1934, pp. 30-31, 251-75).

Ferdinando Diotallevi

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Benedict the Moor, Saint

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