BISIGNANO. - City in the province of Cosenza, the 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 era it was a fief of the Sanseverino, who styled themselves princes of it.
As a diocese it must be considered of Byzantine foundation, having partly succeeded Turio, destroyed at the end of the 7th century. The first bishop of whom there is record is an "Anderamus Bisuntianus," who subscribed to the Synod of Pope Zachary in 744.
In the 9th century, since the Crati Valley was under the Lombards, B. adopted the Latin rite, together with Cosenza: both in 847 were declared suffragans of Salerno and as such confirmed by John XV in 994.
But the patriarch of Byzantium, to whom all the dioceses of Calabria had been subject since the 8th century, ignored 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 9th century. The fact, moreover, that B. appears only in Notitia III and not in Notitia I, where Cosenza is indeed mentioned, proves that B. is not earlier than the 8th century; therefore it is not improbable that the "Anderamus" of 744 must be considered the first bishop of B. After him there follows a long period of silence, and only with the Normans do we have news of other prelates of B.
The creation of the diocese of S. Marco, willed by the Normans like that of Mileto, must have taken away territory from B. In compensation it was withdrawn from Reggio or from Salerno and subjected directly to the Holy See, as appears from the bull of Celestine III of 1182 and from the Provinciale Vetus of Albino.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 aeque principaliter to S. Marco.
The small territory includes Acri, which is larger and is the birthplace of saints and men of letters.
In the city the following are notable: the Cathedral, the episcopal palace, the church of the Minors. In its territory was the Cistercian abbey of Sambucina, near Luzzi, the first founded in all of southern Italy, in 1136. There Abbot Joachim of Fiore, founder of the Florense Congregation and a notable writer, was formed. There originated: Predo of B., a learned Greek monk, called the "walking library," who died around 990; the blessed Umile Pirozzi of B., a Reformed friar (1582-1637), beatified in 1881; and the blessed Angelo Falcone of Acri (1669-1731), a Capuchin, beatified by Leo XII in 1825.