Luke of Sicily

Venerable Luke of Sicily was a monk born in Tauromenium (modern Taormina) in Sicily, who struggled on Mount Etna, founded a monastery and reposed in the Lord at Corinth in the year 820.

As a youth of about eighteen his mind was wise and he went constantly to the house of God. When his parents wished to marry him, he left by night for an uninhabited place and lived among the wild beasts. For forty days he remained without food and was granted divine and angelic visions and revelations. Then he entered a monastery and received the angelic schema. There he led a severe life, eating bread and water only every three or four days and not resting at all. He stayed eighteen months. He then went with a monk to Mount Etna, living on the herbs found there, sleeping little, with one garment, and going barefoot.

He resolved not to leave his cell until he had read the whole Psalter, and set his order of the third hour, work until the sixth hour, then a little food and the rest of his rule. In this way he received from God a great gift, the interpretation of difficult words, so that those who heard him marvelled: "Where does this man know letters from, having never studied?" Then, by revelation, he went to a certain place and gathered twelve monks, caring for their salvation. To learn the rules of other monasteries he visited many cities, went to Byzantium, called on the houses of monks and took counsel with the fathers, as far as Corinth. There, in a village, he stayed no more than seven months and fell asleep in peace.

He is commemorated on 6 November, according to the new calendar.