GREGORIO of CASSANO, Saint. - A Basilian monk of the 10th century, born in Cassano allo Ionio around 930, he took the monastic habit at the monastery of S. Andrea di Cerchiaro, then ruled by St. Pacomius, whom he succeeded in 960. Having escaped a Saracen raid, to avoid being taken to Constantinople he went to Rome, where he founded the monastery of S. Salvatore, splendidly endowed by the Empress Theophano, who, around 990, persuaded him to follow her to Germany. There he founded the Greek monastery of SS. Apollinaris and Nicholas at Burdschield, near Aachen, which became a center of Byzantine influence throughout Germany. He died there in 1002.
BIBL.: The life of St. G. is known only from Latin sources. There are two versions in two codices from Vienna: the shorter, mutilated one is the older, while the longer, more recent one echoes legends about the saint’s real origins and his kinship with Theophano. Both versions were published by O. Holder-Egger in MGH, Scriptores, XV, pp. 1185-1190, and in Acta SS. Novembris, 2 (1894), pp. 469-77. Cf. F. Russo, Sulla Vita Gregori Abbati, in Boll. d. Badia greca di Grottaferrata, nuova serie, 2 (1948), pp. 192-205.