Rođen u Raveni, Italija, 709. godine. Umro u Kataniji, Sicilija, u veljači 789. godine. Na Siciliji, gdje je bio petnaesti katanijski biskup i veoma poštovan radi svoje učenosti, poznat i po svojoj ljubavi i brige prema siromašnima. Sveti Leon poznat je kao 'il Maraviglioso' ("Čudotvorac"). Njegov Vita bio je ukrašen mnogim sjajnim ali nevjerojatnim fiorettima. (Benedeictines). Živio je u prijelazu vremena između vladavine careva Justinijana II. i Konstantin IV. Borio se posebno protiv poganstva i vračanja koje je prevladavalo u istočnoj Siciliji. U isti se dan časti i kod katolika i pravoslavaca.

na slici: bizantska ikona svetog Leona

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Saint Leo of CataniaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rođen u Raveni, Italija, 709. godine. Na Siciliji, gdje je bio petnaesti katanijski biskup i veoma poštovan radi svoje učenosti, poznat i po svojoj ljubavi i brige prema siromašnima. Sveti Leon poznat je kao 'il Maraviglioso' ("Čudotvorac"). Njegov Vita bio je ukrašen mnogim sjajnim ali nevjerojatnim fiorettima. (Benedeictines). Živio je u prijelazu vremena između vladavine careva Justinijana II. i Konstantin IV. Borio se posebno protiv poganstva i vračanja koje je prevladavalo u istočnoj Siciliji. U isti se dan časti i kod katolika i pravoslavaca.

He left the memory of prodigies and charitable deeds, an admirable apostolate that deserved him his Greek epithet.For the natives of Catania he was simply Leone " il Maraviglioso" (the Wonderworker or He who performs Miracles).

Catania dedicated to him a peripheral suburb built around the homonymous Catholic Parish but even the name of the sole Eastern Orthodox church of the city, harboured in a temple that still maintains the primal name of Saint Michael the Lesser, restored recently and consecrated again to the purpose.
He is, moreover, the patron saint of the Sicilian localities of Rometta, Longi and Sinagra. The hamlet of Saracena in Calabria celebrates him twice a year in Spring and in late Summer.
LifeLeo was born at Ravenna and very young he became a Benedictine, then he moved and betook himself to Reggio Calabria in Southern Italy where the local bishop Cyril nominated him archdeacon. Thereat he stayed till his episcopal election for the vacant Diocese of Catania.

A local legend asserts that the Catanians, who needed a new Bishop, had a collective dream wherein an Angel suggested them to search for the selected person in the Calabrian city of Reggio where a man in odour of sanctity lived in an hermitage. That stranger would have become the right guide to fill suchlike post. At first Leo was reluctant as he considered himself not worthy for this ordeal so he did not accept and decided to refute politely such summary acclaim. Afterwards, when the umpteen solicitations from Catania became doubtless and heartfelt, he persuaded at last. In fact on 765 he was appointed to rule over that Community of Christians.
In the coming epoch, in every regions of the Byzantine Empire (of whom Catania with the entire Sicily was a dominion) began the fierce and unrestrainable destruction of the sacred icons, the so-called "iconoclasm", which Leo openly opposed to.
Owing to his firmness, the Byzantine Governor of Sicily ordered his arrest, forcing him to leave Catania and find refuge on the Tyrrhenian territories of the island. He wandered for many years through the woody Nebrodian heights, in the whereabouts between Longi and Sinagra, protected by the people that recognized him as a fervent opposer of the Imperial power.

He reached, during this long peregrination a place called Rometta. Here, on the Monti Peloritani backing Messina, he lived in a cave he hollowed out all by himself with his very hands and fingernails. Shortly after, when his persecution seemed to calm down he was able to come back to Catania where he repossessed his bishopric to keep on fighting with more strength than ever against the iconoclast laws and the new and growing gurgles of heresy.
Umro u Kataniji, Sicilija, u veljači 789. godine.

Saint Leo of CataniaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Catanian legend: the Thaumaturge and the CharmerAccording to a local account, among the candidates who were excluded from being vested with the episcopate, there was a character called Heliodorus. Catanian dignitary of noble birth, he probably denied his Christian belief because of envy and rage for a choice so sudden and unexplainable to him, bearing a malice towards the foreign-born nominee and his fellow-citizens.
For this reason, he began devoting himself to the occult and magic with the sole aim to grow into Leo's worst adversary and noisome disturber to fascinate and lead astray with any sort of wizardries his occasional spectators in order to acquire easily compliant followers.

On the other hand, Leo always tried peacefully to convince Heliodorus that his behavior and deviltries were thoroughly wrong.But in vain. They met each other for the last time on 778 AD and their final clash will have a large echo throughout Sicily, to rebound even to the Imperial court of Constantinople.
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During a Mass officiated by the Saint Prelate in the whilom mother-church of Catania, Heliodorus noisily rushed into the nave, slinking away along the pews to spellbind and confound the believers engrossed in the Sunday rite. In further versions of the same tale, many story-tellers want him to clamour inside the temple in the likeness of a black elephant or with the retinue of a trumpeting pachyderm.

Leo was constrained to conclude the Liturgy and determined on ending those roaring witcheries he drew away from the altar and forced his way through the parishioners to face that "demonic jester". Deranged by sorrow, he drew the conclusion that all his mild approaches and patient argumentations would have not been efficient any more. So, he decided to dare that impious enchanter to show publicly and prove baldly he who professed the rightest creed.

After ordering to heap up wood for a pyre in a furnace inside the close Achillean Thermal Baths, Leo suddenly enwrapped his omophorion round the abashed miscreant dragging him towards the chosen place where the balefire was already crackling. Both were immediately enfolded by highest flames that transformed their lineations and clothes in embers.

Only Leo will survive to this test of faith.He came out of the stake with undamaged vestments that kept shining about his unscathed body.The other unwilling contestant was fated to succumb instead. The only traces of his funeral pile were, as a matter of fact, a mass of smoking and glittering ashes.

Izvori:

Santi Correnti. La città semprerifiorente. Catania, Greco, 1977.

orn in Ravenna, Italy, which to this day bears the traces of Byzantine glory in some of its architecture, St. Leo stemmed from nobility, which he chose to set aside in order to serve Jesus Christ. Like the newsboy who rises to become the editor, he rose from acolyte to bishop of Catania. He chose to serve Christ who embraced him for all his charmed life on earth and beyond. From youth he had evinced that spark of the divine rarely endowed on man but when he had reached the post of bishop his proximity to God was beyond question, needing not even a halo to convince the most skeptical and cynical who could not fail to see the divine aura about this man or feel a divine presence wherever he chanced to be.

That the power of the Lord was with him followed his missionary efforts in Sicily where pagan holdouts, including a great number of Hellenes continued to plague Christianity even in the eighth century. It was Leo's tremendous success in converting pagans into devout Christians that placed him a cut above and earned him a renown as a man of God to be reckoned with by any who dared assail the faith in Jesus Christ. On one occasion he was challenged to demonstrate the power of his Lord, whereupon he went to one of the remaining Hellenic pagan temples and after praying briefly the temple was not only reduced to rubble but out of its remains there sprouted the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Another time, St. Leo was challenged by a man named Heliodoris who had made a pact with Satan in order to gain power over his fellow man. An apostate who had denied Christ, Heliodoris challenged Leo to a show of strength between them to be held in public. At first inclined to scoff at this ridiculous proposition, Leo prayed for guidance and to be worthy of this challenge and affront to God.

Leo agreed to the test which was to walk through a roaring fire in an open furnace built especially for the occasion. A huge crowd gathered, including the emperor who was most anxious along with other Christians, to witness the power of the Lord and to pray for the man chosen to display this power. When all was in readiness and after some fanfare, Leo took Heliodoris and led him into the fire, emerging from the flames alone and unscathed. All that remained of Heliodoris could have been put in a small urn. The point had been clearly made. God has power over the devil.

When Leo eventually returned to Catania after serving as religious advisor to Emperor Constantine VI in Constantinople, his first act was to erect a chapel using resources provided by the emperor. The chapel was dedicated to Saint Lucia, a martyred saint of Sicily. This church still stands today in Catania. The remainder of Leo's life was anticlimactic, choosing to roam about the island as the spirit moved him and winning even more converts. He finally passed away in 875 and was buried beneath the Church of St. Lucia, which is a shrine of Christianity to this day.

Source: Orthodox Saints, Spiritual Profiles for Modern Man January 1 to March 31, by George Poulos.