Mamilian of Palermo

Saint Mamilian (Mamilianus) of Palermo was bishop of Palermo in the fifth century, venerated with Nympha (Ninfa), Eustotius, Proculus and Golbodeus. He is commemorated on 15 September (according to some sources also on 12 March). Our sources show no formal Orthodox veneration: he is a Sicilian saint of the undivided Church, venerated chiefly in the Western tradition.

Life

He lived in Sicily at a time when the Vandals dominated the island. He served as bishop of Palermo but around 450 was exiled to Africa by the Arian Vandals, with some Christian companions; one source says he was exiled to Tuscany by the Vandal king Genseric. Through the intercession of an African bishop or some sympathetic Christians he escaped to Sardinia, then settled on the island of Montecristo. According to a legend of the island, Mamilian defeated a dragon and changed the island's name from Montegiove ("Jove's Mountain") to Montecristo ("Christ's Mountain"). A community of hermits, regarded as his followers, lived on the island, and around 600 a monastery was built there. After that he went to the island of Giglio, where he died. The Russian source also says that he was the guide of Saint Nympha. The name Golbodeus may be a corruption of Quodvultdeus, a name borne also by another fifth-⁠century saint.

Veneration

According to a tradition on Giglio, inhabitants of Elba and Genoa tried to steal his relics on the very day of burial, so that the saint's body was torn to pieces; Giglio kept his arm. Some sources say the relics were taken to Rome, to the church of Santa Maria in Monticelli, and from there to Spoleto, and a part may have been taken to Palermo. Another tradition says that Cosimo III de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, returned the whole body to Giglio in the seventeenth century. On the island of Giglio the celebration in his honour begins on 15 September and lasts four days, with a procession with the relics (his arm), games, music and a traditional service. In 1673 Archbishop Juan Lozano of Palermo set up in the cathedral of Palermo statues of Saints Mamilian, Eustotius, Proculus and Golbodeus.