Alfano I, physician, bishop, politician, was a giant of southern culture and history in the 11th century. He was also a great man of letters, author of religious poems and dedicated to friends.
1015-1020
Medico, vescovo, politico, letterato
Extraordinary character, Bishop Alfano. He was a great religious man, a great physician, a great scholar. Truly a man who best sums up those concepts of harmony of the sciences, of the spirit, of the soul characteristic of the Medical School.
Born in Salerno between 1015 and 1020, from a noble family, he participated in the political life of the city, and then of Christian Europe, collaborating in the reform of the Church initiated by the great Hildebrand of Soana, Pope Gregory VII. He was a churchman connected with the Abbey of Monte Cassino, was a physician and scientist who translated medical classics from Greek, and was a fine author of poems.
He became friends with Desiderius, the abbot of Monte Cassino, who had come to our city for treatment, and shared political and religious commitment with him for years.
He participated in many councils, and even had the honor of hosting one in Salerno in 1068. He was at odds with the Lombard prince Gisulphus, then opposed the Normans, but when Guiscard conquered his city, he was able to coexist with him and persuaded him to build the splendid cathedral that holds the relics of St. Matthew. And in Salerno he then hosted Gregory VII, brought here by Guiscard who had saved him from the siege of Emperor Henry IV. And in Salerno Hildebrand found peace in his last months of life, and he too is buried in our cathedral, which he had consecrated.
He traveled widely, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, was first a prisoner of the Emperor of the East and then a fugitive from him, and made of his life a monument to faith, science, and literature.
He wrote much, in fact, and as a man of letters he is to be remembered even more than as a man of politics and faith. He composed many poetic works, in honor of the saints, first of all, to celebrate their liturgies. And then dedicated to many friends, bishops and monks connected with his beloved Monte Cassino, and perhaps his poetry of friendship is literarily the most valuable. He also wrote a number of essays on theology, and, of course, medicine, some original, some translated from the Greek.
