Places of the Myth of Cronus-Saturn: Monte Kronio
Places of identity and memory (IWB)
Places of myth and legends: Myth of Cronus - Saturn
The site is part of the Places of Myth and Legends - entered in the Register of the Sicily Region LIM (Places of the gods and minor divinities)
Marsala and Sciacca
The hypothesis has been formulated that, with the arrival of Christianity, the cult of Cronos was replaced with that of St. Calogero. According to legend, St. Calogero was born in Chalcedon, as a young man, he retired to a forest where he received from God the gift of performing miracles and the ability to prophesy. He then began to preach Christianity, was persecuted and forced, in 303, to exile to Sicily where he lived for many years in a cave in Lillibeo (Marsala), from where he only came out to preach Jesus Christ. In old age he retired to Mount Cronio, not far from Sciacca, later called Mount S. Calogero, where he spent his last days inside a cave [Giuseppe Pitre: Patronal festivities in Sicily. p. 368].
Mount Kronio (Sciacca, Termini Imerese)
The Cronii mountains were more than one and this explains how the S. Calogero mountains are also more than one. Another mountain with the name of San Calogero is found, in fact, near Termini Imerese (precisely between the municipalities of Termini Imerese, Caccamo and Sciara). According to what has been said, the ancient Agrigento belief according to which the saints who respond to the name of Calogero were even four, all brothers who lived as hermits and who eventually became the patron saints of the towns of Agrigento, Sciacca, Licata and Naro [Giuseppe Pitre: Patronal Festivals in Sicily. p. 380].
Signs that suggest the replacement of a pagan divinity with a Christian saint derive from the unfolding, not really Christian, of one of the feasts in honor of St. Calogero. Every year, on the Tuesday after Pentecost, a solemn feast was celebrated on Mount Cronio in honor of the saint, which often degenerated into a real bacchanal. In this regard, Pitre remembers:
".. and even today it is an exhilarating spectacle that of such pilgrims, who have gone with the best religious intentions, and who return too happy, if not drunk ...".
Another interesting element that can be found in the legend of San Calogero is the coincidence, perhaps not entirely by chance, of the fact that the saint, who had the gift of prophecy, lived for a certain period in a cave in Lillibeo, and precisely in a cave of Lillibeo it was the seat of the Sibyl of Lillibeo, the prophetess of Apollo, whose cult was replaced in the Christian era by another prophet, St. John the Baptist.
To read the file on the myth of Cronus see Cronos (Saturn)
Places reported on the IWB:
• Arm of S. Raineri (Messina)
• Mount Kronio (Sciacca, Agrigento)
• Kronio Castle, slopes of Monte Pellegrino (Palermo) - Not identified
• Promontory of Trapani
• Altar of Kronos, Rupe Gogala (Caltabellotta, Agrigento)
• Monte Scuderi, formerly Monte Saturno (Fiumedinisi, Messina)
To view the places included in the IWB of the Myth of Cronus-Saturn on an Interactive Map, see the following web page: The places of Cronos
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Photo: web
Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero, Region of Sicily
