As you have read in earlier sections of this book, we trace the generations of Colloraffis born in Sant' Agata Di Militello and other sections of Sicily, in the past two hundred years, to the mountains of Librizzi. There also seems to have been interchange and communication in these branches of the family throughout the 19th century, as evidenced by marriages and relocation. Furthermore, the records show that in the early 1800's, the "land owning" part of our famiy married into the Collura family.

It is most likely that the Patti area and the Collura Famiglia that ruled there form the base of both our Colloraffi Famiglia and our name. There is more information on this in the chapters on the Colloraffi name and our earliest ancestors. Several branches of our family, seperated by over 200 years share the same legend; i.e: that the name was changed after two brothers were banished from the mountains and went to the sea, for defending the family honor, and that ours was a noble family - as were the Collura Famiglia.

We can trace our family back to at least 1590 in this area of Sicily and know that we were a land owning family of some noble background as the titles of "Don" and "Donna" were used, out of respect, for what may be the common ancestors of all of the Colloraffis or Collorafis in the world today.

The history of this North East section of Sicilia is a very interesting one. Historians trace the early inhabitants of the Patti area to one of the last Greek colonies established in Sicily, Tyndaris - now known as Tindari. ( It is interesting that currently there are at least two men in our family known by the most unusual name of Tindaro Collorafi, who are from the San Piero Patti/Librizzi area. Obviously, this is the root of that family name.) Tyndaris was a city that boldly sat on a headland by the sea and was founded in the year 396 BC as an outpost against the Carthaginians. It was populated by Greeks who were fleeing from the Peloponnesian War. In fact, it was named after their battle god, who was the brother of Helen of Troy. There is now a historical arachaeological park at the site, even though much of the city fell into the sea in a great disaster in the year 70 AD. An Arab invasion in the year 836 AD further destroyed this settlement.

Patti is said to have started, in Hellenistic times, as an expansion or outgrowth of Tyndaris. The city grew vastly when Tyndaris was destroyed. Not only is Patti linked to the early Greek settlements of Sicily, but the Norman ones as well. The Normans, who invaded Sicily in 1071, may be responsible for the blue or green eyes and light hair and complexion that we often seen passed down through generations of our Colloraffi family. Patti was a favorite Norman site and they founded an abbey there which was burned because of its loyalty to the house of Anjou, during the war of Sicilian Vespers in 1282. Chales of Anjou was crowned Kind of Sicily in 1266 and ruled until this war, which was a popular Sicilian uprising against the French.

However, the remains of the very famous Queen Adelasia, who died in Patti in 1118, and is the wife of the Roger I, King of Sicily and mother of Roger II, is in the cathedral, which stands on the site of the Norman church built by Roger to contain the remains of his mother.

In 1554, the city of Patti was again plundered and burned but this time by an outlaw and pirate no other than the pirate Khair-ed-din Barbarossa (or Red Beard). In an earlier section of this book, when I talked of Sicilians moving inland or to the mountains to escape the pirates, this is fact - not fiction! The "watch tower" pictured in the Collorafis of San Piero Patti section of this book, is not there merely for decoration. Perhaps some of our Colloraffi ancestors were in it, watching the smoke come from nearby Patti in the year 1554.

Patti is now considered a wonderful city to visit due to not only it's beautiful location, overlooking the sea, but an interesting medieval quarter and several churches - San Nicolo and San Michele, filled with the art by Gagini. There is also the 15th century church - Sant' Antonio Abate with beautiful rounded arches. The Cattedrale di San Bartolomeo, which contains the sarcophagus of Queen Adelasis, the wife of Roger I. There are also traces of the Norman rule in the ruined tower, and traces of the city gate and wall. Recently, Patti has become famous for the Roman Villa which was uncovered in 1973.

The part of our Colloraffi family that lived in Patti, for the most part,were either seamen or merchants. The women are listed as spinners or weavers. Aside from the lucky sons who inherited the farm land, which was owned by part of our family in the San Piero Patti and Vallone Vina/Librizzi area, there seemed to be much interchange and intermarrying of family and extended family members in all of these North East communities, which are very close together.

From what we can determine, the name Patti derives from either a city wall or from the word for a treaty. San Piero, is the Norman or French-Sicilian version of Saint Peter, who was the patron saint of this area after the Norman invasion brought Christianity back to Sicily. It is interesting that though Pietro is a common name, evident in nearly every Colloraffi family of Vallone Vina, San Piero Patti, Patti, and Librizzi - it is not a common name in the branch of our family from Sant' Agata Di Militello.