Saint Gerland of Agrigento

Gerland came from Besançon, of Franco-Norman origin, and in 1088 he was appointed bishop of Agrigento. He held that see until his death in 1100. He has been venerated as a saint since 1159, and he is the patron of Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. Little of his life has been preserved. But what has been preserved very well is the way his city keeps turning to him, and that’s worth more than many biographies. In Agrigento his name is invoked against natural disasters, with a rhyming phrase that children learn by heart: *“San Giullannu senza ddannu”* — Saint Gerland, keep us from harm. Storms, lightning, thunder. And there is a recent episode, not ancient hagiography but twentieth-century news. On July 19 and 20, 1966, a devastating landslide swallowed several buildings in the city. For days that name was invoked without pause. The landslide claimed no lives, and the faithful of Agrigento read it as the intervention of their saint. You can believe in the intervention or not; what remains is that an entire city, facing fear, knew whom to turn to. His relics rest in Agrigento cathedral, in a finely worked silver urn. If your name is Gerlando, today is your name day. It’s a name found almost only in Agrigento, and whoever bears it usually has a grandfather who was called that too. A French bishop who came to Sicily a thousand years ago, and a phrase in dialect that keeps him alive better than any book.