SABA IL GIOVANE, saint. - Basilian ascetic of the 10th century, from Collesano in Sicily, d. 5 Feb. 995. His father, s. Cristoforo, was a monk at S. Filippo d'Argira; his mother Cali founded a convent of women; his brother, Macario il Giovane, was with him one of the principal ascetics of the period.
The Arab invasion of the Island and the famine of 940–41 compelled him to take refuge in Calabria. The famous monastic eparchy of Mercurion, in the extreme north-west of the region, was the scene of his ascetic rigorism. Constantly wandering, he founded several cenobitic communities in Calabria and Lucania; he made a pilgrimage to Rome; he lived for some years in a cave near Amalfi; he then moved
near Salerno. Giovanni, Prince of Salerno, and Mamone III, Duke of Amalfi, appealed to him to obtain the release of their children, hostages of Ottone II.