Page:Uniate Eastern Churches.pdf/96

66 favourites at his court. The Greek influence lasted still longer. The Moslem religion did gradually die out. Though there must be a good deal of Moorish blood among the Sicilians, they have all long become Christians. The Greeks of Sicily and Southern Italy have left, besides traces of their blood and character, their rite, too, as a memory of the days when they were the dominant element of those parts. The first stratum, if one may so call it, of the Byzantine rite in Italy is the remnant of the old Greeks of Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily.

We must now see how Christianity was introduced here, and in what form the first Christians of Lower Italy said their prayers.


 * 2. Christianity in Sicily and Lower Italy to the Eighth Century.

The Italians of the South count their Churches as Apostolic foundations. That so common an attitude in the case of any relatively old Church that we should not be much impressed by it. But in this case there are undoubted facts which supply at least a good foundation for their belief.

Both St Peter and St Paul came to Lower Italy. In St Paul's first journey to Rome, after he had appealed to Cæsar, he came, after the shipwreck at Malta, in an Alexandrine ship first to Syracuse. Here he remained three days. Then he sailed to Rhegium, stayed there one day, went on to Puteoli, where he stayed among the brethren seven days (there were