Hospito (''Hospiton'' in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, ''Ospitone'' in Sardinian) was a Sardinian chief of

Barbagia Barbagia (; sc, Barbàgia or ) is a geographical, cultural and natural region of inner Sardinia, contained for the most part in the province of Nuoro and Ogliastra and located alongside the Gennargentu massif. The name comes from Cicero, wh ...

(''dux Barbaricinorum'') who converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in the late sixth century.

Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

, in a letter dated to 594, commended Hospito for his Christianity at a time when most of the Sardinians from the interior (''Barbaricini'') were still pagans "living, all like irrational animals, ignorant of the truth of God and worshiping wood and stone." Hospito confirmed a peace with the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...

'' Zabardas and allowed the missionaries Felix and Ciriacus into Barbagia.

Notes

Medieval Sardinia 6th-century Christians {{Italy-bio-stub