| Saint Fantinus | |
| Birth Date: | c. 927 |
| Death Date: | 1000 |
| Feast Day: | August 30 |
| Venerated In: | Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Birth Place: | Calabria |
| Death Place: | Greece |
Fantinus (Italian: Fantino) (c. 927–1000) was an Italian saint. He is sometimes called Fantinus of Calabria[1] or Fantinus the Younger (Fantino il Giovane) to distinguish him from Fantinus the Wonderworker (or the Elder), an earlier Calabrian saint.[2] [3]
Born in Calabria in a locality described as being the "closest to Sicily",[2] Fantinus was introduced as a child to Saint Elias the Cave-Dweller.[4] Fantinus' parents were named George and Vriena.[2] Fantinus' spiritual education was entrusted to Elias, and Fantinus became a monk at the age of thirteen and worked as a cook and afterwards as a porter. At the age of thirty-three, he became a hermit in the region of Mount Mercurion in the north of Calabria. There, many monasteries and hermitages had been established under the Basilian rule. Fantinus lived a life of extreme asceticism, eating only raw vegetables, and occupying his time copying manuscripts.[4] He also experienced a vision of heaven and hell.[4]
Fantinus lived both as a hermit and as a monk and abbot. He subsequently convinced his aged parents, as well as his two brothers, Luke and Cosmas, and sister Caterina, to enter the monastic life. When he became a hermit, he left his brother Lucas in charge of the monastery for men he had founded. Though a hermit, he often returned from the wild in order to serve as a guide and spiritual teacher to disciples, such as Nilus the Younger and Nicodemus of Mammola.[2]
The monastery he founded was destroyed by Muslim raiders during Fantinus' lifetime.[1] But Fantinus was told by an angel to preach in Greece.[4] He left Calabria with two disciples, Vitalis and Nicephorus. During the voyage, the ship ran out of drinking water. Fantinus is said to have made the sign of the cross over a container filled with seawater and miraculously converted it into drinkable water.[2] Fantinus visited Corinth, Athens, and Larissa, where he lived near the sepulcher of Saint Achillius of Larissa. He lived for four months in a monastery dedicated to Saint Menas near Thessalonica, and then lived outside of the city walls of that city. In Thessalonica itself, he cured the sick and caused a corrupt judge to repent of his sins.[2] He was also given credit for preventing a Bulgarian capture of the city.[4]
Fantinus died in Greece.[1]
The eleventh-century Greek life of Fantinus has been edited and translated into Italian by Enrica Follieri.[5]