492 Lizzi Testa
Insular Asceticism
Not long after the Council of Beziers (356) and his retirement to a monastery
near Milan, which was probably just a simple cell (sibi monasterium statuit),
Martin of Tours had moved to the island of Gallinara, located off the coast
of Albenga. He was attracted to the new forms of insular asceticism that had
begun to populate the coasts of the peninsula.64 A few years later, accord
ing to Jerome, “bands of monks” were scattered throughout the islands and
shores of the entire Etruscan Sea,65 and in 417, while returning to Gaul, Rutilius
Namatianus was sadly affected by the number of lucifugi viri (men fleeing the
light, i.e. monks) that had chosen to live on the inhospitable islands of Capraia
and Gorgona.66 Roughly a century later, the ascetics of Ostrogothic Italy
were favouring larger islands. While in exile from Vandal Africa (ca. 529), for
instance, Fulgentius of Ruspe founded some monasteries near the Sardinian
city of Cagliari, one of which grew up near the basilica of the martyr Saturninus
and had a scriptorium.67 After some early eremitical experiments, male coeno
bitic settlements also began to populate Sicily, although they did not always
give rise to real monastic institutions.68
Male Monasteries in Central—Southern Italy
The oldest monastic experiences in southern Italy appear related to the rural
or suburban areas where Paulinus of Nola spent the last forty years of life (395–
431). He enriched Cimitile with a lavish cruciform basilica and a small chapel
located at the tomb of the holy bishop Felix. He also described this monumen
tal complex in various poems and organized a community around it that he
referred to as a monasterium.69 Fasting, sexual continence, prayers, and vigils
governed the daily life of his community, as well as of other monastic settle
ments, both male and female, that he recalled between Otranto and Lupiae
64 Sulp. Sev., Vita Mart. 6.4–7.1, ed. Fontaine, pp. 582–99.
65 Jerome, Ep. 77.6, ed. Labourt, vol. 4, p. 47: “insulas, et totum Etruscum mare... et recondi
tos curvorum litorum sinus, in quibus monachorum consistunt chori... ”.
66 Rut. Nam., De reditu lines 439–440, ed. Keene, p. 144.
67 Pricoco, ‘Il monachesimo nell’età di Teoderico’, pp. 406–8; Id., Il monachesimo, pp. 90–1.
68 Cracco Ruggini, “Il primo cristianesimo in Sicilia”, pp. 112–20.
69 Chierici, “Cimitile”, pp. 125–37; Lipinski, “Le decorazioni per la basilica di S. Felice”,
pp. 65–80. On the use of monachus/monasterium in Paulinus: Lienhard, Paulinus of
Nola, pp. 60–9, and Trout, Paulinus of Nola, pp. 104–159; also Brown, Through the Eye of a
Needle, pp. 208–40.