Philadelphus of Pattano

Philadelphus of Pattano was the first abbot of the abbey of Santa Maria di Pattano, an old monastery of Byzantine rite in the municipality of Vallo della Lucania, in the province of Salerno, in southern Italy. He lived in the 9th and 10th centuries. At the site of the monastery there is also a church of the late 10th century dedicated to him.

Philadelphus is a typical witness to the Byzantine monasticism of the Cilento, represented by the Italo-⁠Greek monks who for centuries brought there the religious culture, the farming techniques and the healing skill of the Byzantine world. From the abbey of Santa Maria di Pattano comes the polychrome wooden statue of the saint, dressed in the traditional Byzantine monastic habit, a kind of icon of the spirit of the place. Before being moved to the Diocesan Museum of Vallo della Lucania, the statue stood in the church of Saint Philadelphus.

Our sources give no date of death, day of remembrance or other details. He is a local saint of the undivided Church, from the Italo-⁠Greek monastic tradition; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.