Leo of Catania

Saint Leo, bishop of Catania, was the fifteenth bishop of that Sicilian city and a wonderworker, famed for his care of the poor. He fell asleep on 20 February 789. He is commemorated on 20 February by the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church. In Sicily he is remembered as Leo the Marvellous.

He was born at Ravenna, around 703 or 709, and became a monk young, then moved to Reggio in Calabria, where Bishop Cyril made him archdeacon. A legend says the Catanians, needing a bishop, dreamed together that an angel sent them to Reggio, where a holy man lived in a hermitage. Leo, thinking himself unworthy, refused at first. In 765, after the death of Saint Sabinus, he was nonetheless elected bishop of Catania. He was known for works of mercy: "he cared for orphans, the poor, widows, the sick and strangers, feeding and clothing them from the Church's property, and healed their ailments by his prayers". He fought paganism and sorcery, still present in Byzantine Sicily.

In his time iconoclasm began, and Leo boldly opposed it. The governor of Sicily ordered his arrest, and he was forced to leave Catania. For many years he wandered in the wooded Nebrodi heights, between Longi and Sinagra, finding shelter with people who saw in him a support against imperial abuses. He came to Rometta, where he settled in a cave hollowed out with his hands. When the danger lessened he returned to Catania and resumed his see, still fighting heresy.

His Life tells that the magician Heliodorus, a Christian by birth who turned to magic and was twice condemned to death but vanished from the place of execution, came into the church while the saint was serving and made people roar like beasts and laugh. Leo prayed, came out of the sanctuary, bound him by the neck with his omophorion and led him to the city square, where he ordered a great fire lit, entered the fire and drew Heliodorus in after him. Heliodorus burned up entirely, and Leo remained unharmed, which shamed those who were deceived. According to the local story the scene took place at the Achillean baths, where the cathedral now stands. At his death miracles were told, among them the healing of a woman with a haemorrhage, and from his relics myrrh flowed. He was buried in the church of Saint Lucy, built by him. His relics are kept, according to one source, in Rome. He is patron of the Sicilian towns of Rometta, Longi and Sinagra.