BOVA. – B. is a small town in the Aspromonte opposite Capo Spartivento. Together with S. Lorenzo, Africo, Roccaforte, Condofuri, and Roghudi, it forms a small ethnic island, with a language of purely Greek derivation.
It does not occur in classical antiquity, but only in the Byzantine-Norman period.
As a diocese, it does not appear in the Notitiae of the Diatiposi, and it is therefore uncertain whether it was of Byzantine or Norman foundation. Some think that B. OPPIO (v.) were Greek dioceses established by the Normans to compensate Reggio for the loss of Tuariana and Vibona, which had been merged into the Latin diocese of Mileto and made subject to the Holy See. But the policy of the Normans is hardly compatible with this supposition: they never gave rise to a Greek diocese; on the contrary, they Latinized several Greek dioceses, beginning with Reggio. The existence of a bishop named Luminoso, who in 649 signed the acts of the Synod of Pope Martino, is an unwarranted supposition. He was in fact « Episcopus Bononiensis » and not « Bovensis », as some have read.
B. has always been a suffragan of Reggio and is the diocese that retained the Greek rite the longest, suppressed only in 1574 by Bishop Giulio Stauriano.
There were many Greek monasteries in its territory, including those of S. Leone, S. Maria de Torreto, S. Pantaleone, S. Maria de Traiecto, S. Niccolò de Alefido, etc. The diocese’s own patron, s. Leone or Leonzio, was a Greek monk, a native of B. or, much more probably, of Africo. Some also recall a s. Elia of B.; but this is s. Elia of Reggio, called lo Speleota, who lived in the ninth or tenth century. The bones of s. Leone are venerated in the Cathedral, which is dedicated to s. Maria dell'Iaudia (Presentation). The town of B. has no more than 2,500 inhabitants and leads a rather meagre existence; B. Marina, 12 km away, promises greater development. Its territory is very small and, in total, has no more than 30,000 inhabitants, scattered across 9 municipalities and 17 parishes. Since 1941, the archbishop of Reggio has held the administration of B. ad personam.