BISIGNANO. – A city in the province of Cosenza, ancient Basidiae, which acquired particular importance in the Byzantine-Norman period because of its position in the center of the Crati Valley. In the modern age it was a fief of the Sanseverino family, who took their title as its princes.
As a diocese, it must be regarded as of Byzantine foundation, having partly succeeded Turio, which was destroyed at the end of the seventh century. The first bishop of whom there is any record is an « Anderamus Bisuntianus », who signed the Synod of Pope Zachary in 744.
In the ninth century, when the Crati Valley was under Lombard control, B. adopted the Latin rite, together with Cosenza: in 847 both were declared suffragans of Salerno and were confirmed as such by John XV in 994.
But the patriarch of Byzantium, to whom all the dioceses of Calabria had been subjected since the eighth century, disregarded the measure and continued to regard B. as a Greek diocese and suffragan of Reggio, as is noted in Notitia III of the Diatiposis of Leo VI the Philosopher, from the second half of the ninth century. The fact that B. appears only in Notitia III and not in I, where Cosenza is nevertheless mentioned, demonstrates that B. is not earlier than the eighth century; therefore it is not unlikely that the « Anderamus » of 744 should be regarded as the first bishop of B. After him there followed a long period of silence, and it is only with the Normans that there is information about other prelates of B.
The creation of the diocese of S. Marco, desired by the Normans like that of Mileto, must have taken territory from B. In compensation, it was taken from Reggio or Salerno and placed directly under the Holy See, as appears from the bull of Celestine III of 1182 and from the Provinciale Vetus of Albino. In 1818 it was united aequae principaliter with S. Marco.
The small territory includes Acri, which is larger and is the birthplace of saints and men of letters.
Notable in the city are the Cathedral, the episcopal residence, and the church of the Minori. In its territory stood the Cistercian abbey of Sambucina, near Luzzi, the first founded throughout southern Italy, in 1136. The Abbot Gioacchino da Fiore, founder of the Florense Congregation and a notable writer, was formed there. The following originated there: a. Predo of B., an erudite Greek monk known as the « wandering library », who died around 990; b. Umile Pirozzi da B., a Reformed Franciscan (1582–1637), beatified in 1881; and b. Angelo Falcone da Acri (1669–1731), a Capuchin, beatified by Leo XII in 1825.