Signorie e monasteri nella Sicilia normanna. Le fondazioni di Simone del Vasto tra politica e devozione

This essay reflects on the role of monasteries in the process of defining the structure of the aristocracy in Norman Sicily, with the aim of contributing to scholarship on this theme on the island in the 12th century. The topic is addressed starting from an analysis of the political and devotional choices made by the Aleramici, the most important Sicilian lords of the 12th century, within their domains, where they founded or restored churches and monasteries linked to the Benedictine order and to Palestinian shrines. This made it possible to examine the processes underlying the establishment of the monastery of Santa Maria di Licodia in 1143, on the initiative of Simone del Vasto. As can be deduced from the study of the privilege issued by the island lord, this foundation had a multiplicity of motivations, principally religious and devotional, but also linked to the control and management of the vast Aleramic lordship. Established as a family monastery, this cenoby was granted by Simone to the abbey of Sant’Agata in Catania, one of the most important monastic and episcopal sees of Sicily in the 12th century. The extent of the lands assigned by the Aleramico, the rights granted to goods and men, combined with the initiative shown by the priors of the monastic community of Licodia, must have allowed Santa Maria to become an abbey in the early thirteenth century. Over the following centuries, it thus became one of the most important meeting places for the Sicilian aristocratic élite.