Peregrinus

Saint Peregrinus was the first bishop of Triocala in Sicily (today Caltabellotta), in the centuries of the first persecutions.

The oldest mentions of him are in the Encomium of Saint Marcian of Syracuse, composed after the year 680 and no later than the middle of the eighth century, and in the marble calendar of Naples, on 30 January. Several accounts of him survive which do not agree with one another. The Martyrium of Saint Libertinus of Agrigento and Saint Peregrinus says that he was of African origin, that he was a guest at the monastery of Triginta on Mount Crotalo, that he was betrayed by a monk named Pelagius to the governor Silvanus and condemned to death, together with Bishop Libertinus, in the time of Valerian and Gallienus. His body, thrown on the pyre, remained unharmed and was buried on the spot by a Christian woman, Donnina. His Life, written in Latin, says however that he was a Greek, called to Rome by the apostle Peter and sent to Sicily. There he is said to have defeated a dragon that devoured young people and to have lived in its cave, working healing miracles. Other accounts make him bishop of Triocala, escaped unharmed from the fire and dying later. Among his writings, the Encomium mentions an account of the sufferings of his teacher Marcian.

He is commemorated on 30 January and 18 August. He is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured in Sicily, without synodal canonization; the sources cannot be reconciled on the date and manner of his death.