CATALDO, saint. – Irish monk of the 7th century, for several years director of the great school of Lismore and subsequently bishop of Rachau. He undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; but death overtook him at Taranto, either on the outward journey or, more probably, on the return from the Holy Land. The people of Taranto buried him in their cathedral; and when this was destroyed by the Saracens in 927, they found his body, during its reconstruction (1084), together with a small gold cross on which the name of C. and of his see was engraved. He is venerated as patron of the city; feast on 10 May.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Maii, II, Parigi 1866, pp. 568-77; Martyr. Romanum, p. 183; G. Blandamura, Un cimelio del sec. VII esistente nel duomo di Taranto, Lecce 1917; Lanzoni, pp. 315-16; C. Stornalolo, Crocetta aurea opistografa della cattedrale di Taranto, in Nuovo bull. di arch. crist., 21 (1915), pp. 83-93. Celestino Testore