Sisinnio e le streghe: sul culto di un santo orientale in Sardegna

The historiola intended to oppose the child-killing demon Gello (or similar figures) is attested, since the early Middle Ages, in the Greek-speaking world, where it was used until the beginning of the last century, and in the regions (like Egypt, Ethiopia, Armenia, the Balkans...) that were part of Byzantium's political, religious and cultural sphere of influence. Many of the versions of this historiola feature as hero a legendary saint, Sisinnios, who opposes and finally defeats Gello. So far, it went unnoticed that in southern Sardinia, and especially in the town of Villacidro, there is an old local tradition featuring an obscure "san Sisinnio" as enemy and winner of the feared kogas, witches (the witch, strigla, is frequently associated with Gello) who, according to popular belief, sucked the blood of the infants. Sardinia, although quite remote, in the early Middle Ages still gravitated into the Byzantine orbit, and it seems plausible that this isolated cult of "san Sisinnio" is a legacy of a phase of cultural Hellenization documented between the second half of the seventh century and the tenth century, when the arrival and settlement of monks from the East had an important influence on popular religiosity. © 2018 Edizioni Orientalia Cristiana. All rights reserved.