Fantinus

Who was Fantinus?

Fantinus was an Italian saint. He is sometimes called Fantinus of Calabria or Fantinus the Younger to distinguish him from Fantinus the Wonderworker, an earlier Calabrian saint.

Born in Calabria in a locality described as being the "closest to Sicily", Fantinus was introduced as a child to Saint Elias the Cave-Dweller. Fantinus' parents were named George and Vriena. 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. He also experienced a vision of heaven and hell.

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.