Calabria

CALABRIA. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - In ancient times this name designated the Salentine Peninsula, and only after the 7th century did it designate the other, wider one, which south of the Pollino group, breaking away from the trunk of Italy between the Gulf of Policastro and the mouth of the Sinni, ends the latter on the western side. It is an almost entirely mountainous country (22.4% of the territory) or hilly, with peaks rising above 1500 m. (M. Cocuzzo, 1541 m.) and massive plateaus (Sila, Aspromonte) also raised to nearly 2000 m. (M. Botte Donato, 1929 m.; M. Montalto, 1956 m.). The watercourses, more torrents than rivers (fiumare), have created, with their copious debris, short alluvial plains (below 100 m.; the Crati, the plain of Sibari; the Amato, that of S. Eufemia) which together cover barely 14% of the surface of C. The climate, typically Mediterranean sub-tropical along the coasts, takes on a continental character inland, with cold and rainy winters in the higher areas, and with a tendency toward a certain thermal imbalance between the two coastlines, of which the Ionian is warmer and drier.

Once luxuriant with forests, C. still stands out, among the regions of our Mezzogiorno, for the extent of the area covered by woods and specialized tree crops (48%). Above all the coastal strip is clad in splendid olive groves, citrus groves and orchards. C. ranks first in Italy for the production of bergamot (Reggino), citrons and chestnuts, and second for that of other citrus fruits, olive oil and dried figs (Catanzarese); and equally notable are the quantities of silkworm cocoons, fruit, legumes, etc. that are placed on the national market from here. Agriculture absorbs more than 3/5 of the active population; by contrast, the figures relating to industry are very modest (18%, plus over 6% for handicrafts).

Fertility of the soil and the traditional frugality of the people explain the relatively high index (though below the average of the State) of population density (133 inhabitants per sq. km.). The absolute maxima correspond to southern C., the Cosenza valley and the Catanzaro isthmus. Very populous inhabited centers are rare: only the commune of Reggio exceeds 100 thousand inhabitants (the city 60 thousand); next come Catanzaro with 35 and Cosenza with 32 thousand inhabitants. More than 2/3 of Calabrians live in communes with fewer than 10 thousand inhabitants.

The present administrative division perpetuates, under a different name, the traditional partition into C. citeriore (Cosenza), ulteriore prima (Reggio) and seconda (Catanzaro), whence the use, still not infrequent, of Calabrie in place of C. Here are the relevant statistical data:

As of 1 January 1948 the population of C. was estimated at over 2 million inhabitants.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. HISTORY

In ancient times it was called Bruttium, from its first inhabitants, akin to the Lucanians, who dwelt there, and it formed an integral part of Magna Graecia. When, in the 7th century, the Byzantines lost dominion over the old C., that is, over the Salentine peninsula, they transferred its name to Bruttium, which from then on has always kept its present name. In the Augustan division of Italy, Bruttium, together with Lucania, forms the third region.

The Christian origins of Bruttium are traced back to St. Paul, who, on the occasion of his journey to Rome, stopped for a day at Reggio (Acts 28:13). According to later legends, one of his disciples, Stephen of Nicaea, together with a certain Suera, would have continued his work. Also legendary are the presence of St. Peter in the region, the preaching of St. Mark in the Crati Valley, and that of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as bishop of Crotone. It is certain that Christianity penetrated early into C., through the very active ports of Reggio, Locri, Crotone, Thurii and Vibona, in continuous contact with the East; the Christian inscriptions found at Reggio, Taurianum, Tropea and elsewhere show that the Gospel established itself first in the maritime cities and advanced from south to north. The hierarchy, in a testimony of St. Athanasius, appears there as constituted from the first half of the 4th century. At the beginning of the 5th century Pope Innocent I (401-17) addresses the bishops of Bruttium, Maximus and Severus. At Taurianum and at Blanda Iulia inscriptions have been found with the names of the bishops Leucosius and Julian, both married (4th-5th centuries). In the letters of St. Gregory the Great eleven dioceses of Bruttium are mentioned: Reggio, Locri, Squillace, Miria, Crotone, Thurii, Cosenza, Nicotera, Taurianum, Vibona and Tempsa.

Following the iconoclast struggle, the patrimony of the Roman Church in the region was confiscated by the emperor of Byzantium and the dioceses, reduced to obedience to the patriarchate of Constantinople, had to adopt the rite

Greek. In the 9th century the ecclesiastical circumscription was reorganized; the two metropolises of Reggio and S. Severina were established, and other dioceses, such as Rossano, Cassano, Bisignano, Oppido and Nicastro, took the place of those destroyed, Turio, Tempas, Miria, etc.

Monasticism, which existed in the region before St. Gregory the Great, became firmly established with Cassiodorus, who founded the two famous monasteries of the Vivarium and the Castellense near Squillace. But soon the Latin monks were supplanted by the Greek ones, who invaded even the hidden and impervious recesses of the region, forming eremitic zones (the very well-known one of the Mercurion in the northwestern C.) and famous monasteries, which transformed C. into a new Thebaid. Among these monasteries particular attention is due to those of the Patirion, near Rossano; of S. Adriano, near S. Demetrio Corone; of S. Giovanni di Stilo; of S. Filarete near Seminara; of S. Bartolomeo di Trigonio, near Sinopoli. The precious Greek manuscripts that came out of these monasteries are today dispersed in various libraries of Europe. Holiness was wonderfully affirmed, with some forty Calabrian-Greek saints, among whom are St. Elias of Reggio, St. John Teristi, St. Gregory of Cassano, St. Fantinus, St. Nilus, St. Bartholomew of Simèri, etc.

The Normans began the conquest of C. in 1054 and virtually completed it in 1064. They restored to Rome the jurisdiction usurped by Byzantium, while leaving the existing ecclesiastical circumscription unchanged, indeed adding other dioceses, such as Mileto and S. Marco, in place of Tauriano and Vibona, destroyed, and of Malvito. To them is due the re-Latinization of C. and the great favor granted to the Benedictine, Carthusian and Cistercian monastic Orders: thus arose the rich and powerful Benedictine abbeys of S. Eufemia and of the Most Holy Trinity of Mileto; the Charterhouse of S. Stefano del Bosco at Serra S. Bruno, where the founder of the Carthusians himself died; the Cistercian monasteries of the Sambucina, of Corazzo and of the Mattina, whose art was triumphantly affirmed in the cathedral of Cosenza, consecrated in 1222. From the Cistercians broke away the abbot Joachim of Fiore (v.), who in 1189 laid the foundations of the Florense Congregation with its center at S. Giovanni in Fiore.

The Normans were succeeded by the Swabians (1195-1264). During the long domination of Frederick II, C. achieved great economic progress; but the Swabians adopted a most disastrous religious policy, which brought them to ruin. With the Angevins the religious conditions improved greatly; but the long war of the Vespers devastated C. (1282-1304). The Spanish viceregal government, which lasted for more than two centuries, was ruinous for C. (16th-17th centuries). In the 13th century the Calabrian Franciscans have their martyrs in Morocco (1227): to the Dominicans is entrusted the church of S. Matteo at Cosenza (1240).

The 15th century is dominated by the figure of St. Francis of Paola, founder of the Order of the Minims. At the same time the reformed Dominican Congregation was becoming established in the region, through the work of the blessed Paolo da Mileto. Even more important reforms were carried out in the 16th century; thus there were two Augustinian Congregations, the one so-called of the Zumpani, through the work of the blessed Francesco da Zumpano, and that of Collorito, through the work of the blessed Bernardino da Rogliano. The Capuchin reform has its promoters in the blessed Ludovico and Bernardino da Reggio. In this same century eminent Calabrian ecclesiastics distinguished themselves for their talent: the three Calabrian cardinals: Paolo Parisio da Cosenza, Guglielmo Sirleto da Guardiavalle and Vincenzo Lauro da Tropea; Colantonio Ruffo da Scilla is the first general of the Basilians; Filippo Gesualdi da Castrovillari is general of the Conventuals, Silvestro Papalo da Monteleone of the Capuchins; Teofilo da Tropea, a Dominican, is the first commissioner of the Holy Office; his confrere Tommaso Campanella da Stilo is also a Calabrian.

To five Calabrian religious of the 17th century the Church has decreed the honors of the altars: Umile da Bisignano, a Franciscan; Nicola Saggio da Longobardi, a Minim; Angelo Falcone da Acri, a Capuchin; Paolo Navarro da Laino and Camillo Costanzo da Bovalino, martyrs of the Society of Jesus in Japan.

The 18th century is a century of decadence, aggravated by the most disastrous earthquake of 1783 and by the jurisdictionalist policy of the minister Tanucci. The 19th century was illustrated by the heroic virtues of the venerable Bernardo Maria Clausi da S. Sisto, a Minim, and Gesualdo Melacrinò da Reggio, a Capuchin.

The 20th century has seen the rise of the two regional seminaries of Reggio and Catanzaro, which contribute substantially to the intellectual and spiritual formation of the clergy. v. also BASILIANI D'ITALIA; ITALO-ALBANESI; ITALO-GRECI.

Also to be seen: D. Taccone-Gallucci, Le epigrafi cristiane del Bruzio, Reggio Calabria 1904; P. Orsi, Iscrizioni cristiane di Taurania nei Bruzi, in Arch. stor. della C., 2 (1914), pp. 225-36; A. Crispo, Le antichità cristiane della C. prebizantina, in Arch. stor. Cal. e Lucania, 14 (1945), pp. 3 ff., 119 ff., 209 ff.; F. Russo, La metropoli di S. Severina, in Arch. stor. Cal. e luc., 16 (1947), pp. 1-20.

III. ART OF CALABRIA

Christian art, after almost every trace of the preceding flourishing Greek and Roman civilization had been lost because of the barbarian invasions, began to manifest itself in C. when the Eastern monks arrived there. And even before the clear reflections of Byzantine architectural civilization appeared in the baptistery of S. Severina (9th century), in the cathedral of Stilo and in S. Marco of Rossano (10th-12th centuries), small churches similar to the shrines of the Hellenic regions of Armenia and Anatolia arose. Later, elements derived from Siculo-Muslim architecture brought decorative elegance to the Byzantine buildings. The new spirit and the new orientation also dominated painting, sculpture and the minor arts, of which very scanty remains survive. The famous Evangelary of Rossano of the 6th century is a precious document of painting on codices, while the Cross of the cathedral of Cosenza is a typical example of Byzantine goldsmithing. The Norman dominion aroused intense activity, especially in the field of building; this manifested itself above all through the churches erected by the monks of St. Nilus, which had characteristics of their own, so as to take the name of "Nilian churches." The churches and monasteries built by the Normans were followed by very numerous sacred buildings constructed by the Benedictines and then by the Florensi. The type of temple with a Greek cross and with a cross with a central dome, proper to the Nilian churches, was replaced by the basilical type with a Latin cross, but even after the advent of the Normans the influence of Siculo-Muslim art continued to manifest itself in decoration. Marble-workers and craftsmen, perhaps Sicilian, imported the art of decorating floors and architectural members with mosaics of geometric designs, in the manner of the Cosmati (v.).

The fruitful architectural activity was encouraged and aided by the Swabians. In 1222 the cathedral of Cosenza was inaugurated, in which, for the first time, Cistercian Gothic elements appear in the apse and in the facade. During the subsequent Angevin-Durazzesque period C. too became part of the architectural renewal favored by the Angevins; in this period, painters, sculptors and decorators from other regions worked in C. The frescoes of the crypt of S. Francesco at Irsinia, the tomb of the Sangineto in the church of S. Maria della Consolazione at Altomonte, the mausoleums of Ademaro Romano at Scalea and of the Carafa at Caulonia showed how even in C. painting was dominated by the distant reflections of Cavallini's and Sienese art and sculpture by those of Tuscan Gothic, which reached the extreme limit of the peninsula through Neapolitan works. As in all of southern Italy, the Renaissance did not establish itself in C. with characteristics of its own, but works of art imported from other regions are quite numerous. A true artistic awakening occurred in C. only in the seventeenth century. Stuccoes, marbles, wood carvings, decorated ceilings, choir stalls, pulpits, carved armchairs, the damasks and velvets manufactured by the famous silk mills of Catanzaro enriched churches and patrician houses, while the fabrics of Longobucco and of other towns of the Sila — valuable examples of a popular textile art — demonstrated the vitality of a tradition that went back to the Durazzesque period. Neapolitan painters such as Antonio Sarnelli and Niccolò Rossi, Flemings such as Guglielmo Borremans, architects and stone sculptors traveled throughout the region to build palaces and decorate facades and interiors. But above them all stands the great figure of Mattia Preti, called the Calabrian knight, whose production triumphantly closed the cycle of seventeenth-century Neapolitan painting. In architecture and decoration the Baroque continued to reign in the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century Calabrian artists oriented themselves decisively toward the forms that flourished in Naples.

1938), pp. 1-51; G. Slaughter, C. the first Italy, Madison 1939 (with bibl.); H. Schwarz, Die Baukunst Kalabriens und Siziliens im Zeitalter der Normannen, in Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 6 (1942-44), pp. 1-112; P. Della Pergola, Aspetti del primo Rinascimento nell'architettura della C., in Emporium, 102 (1945), pp. 109-18.

Felice de Filippis

IV. FOLKLORE

C. is one of the regions where popular traditions have been best preserved, and they give a picturesque stamp to the life of the towns. The costumes of the different colonies bring liveliness and variety: Neo-Greek in southern Aspromonte, Albanian in the provinces of Cosenza and Catanzaro, Waldensian at Guardia Piemontese (Cosenza). Although the custom of wearing the traditional costume is rapidly disappearing, it nevertheless survives in various towns, preserved in the beauty, richness and originality of the various styles of dress and their ornaments. It appears especially at religious and family festivals. At S. Giovanni in Fiore the women's costume is completely black, except for the white of the shirt and of the cloth on the head, but in general Calabrian women wear full pleated skirts of silk in bright colors, red or blue, a bodice with a velvet corset, sleeves attached with ribbons over full embroidered shirts. The finest examples can be seen at Castrovillari, Luzzi, Tiriolo, Nicastro, Gioiosa Ionica, Lungro, Cardeto. The men's costume is by now less common, with the characteristic cone-shaped hat adorned with ribbons, a short fustian jacket with metal buttons, a velvet waistcoat, short trousers of cloth or velvet, woolen stockings and on the feet the « calandrelle » or « porcine », similar to the ciocie. Simpler and more ancient is the costume of the shepherds and fishermen. By vow to Our Lady of Sorrows women dress in black with a large white cord at the waist; by vow to St. Anthony they wear a friar's tunic, and so on: the use of such garments is also frequent among children.

In some towns the funeral lament performed by the reputatrici survives: some of these songs, similar in meter and style to the Corsican « voceri », vibrate with intense maternal love. But the most interesting manifestations are linked to the great religious feasts and customs in which the strong devotional feeling of the Calabrian people expresses itself in original and often moving forms. Sanctuaries and pilgrimages are especially dedicated to the cult of the Virgin: those of the Madonna della Consolazione, patroness of the city of Reggio, of the Madonna della Catena near Cosenza, and of the Madonna di Porto Salvo near Sambiase (Catanzaro) are remembered. An important center of popular cult and pilgrimage is the sanctuary of St. Francis of Paola, erected on the cave in which he prayed. The figure of the Saint has inspired narrative songs in which the spiritual and biographical traits are here and there distorted by popular fantasy.

The patronal feasts are numerous, preceded by novenas: lavish meals are offered to guests, the streets are adorned with garlands and balloons and traversed by bands and by "tumbari" (drum players). Wealthy people place before the door of their house a table adorned with the best carpets; the statue of the Saint pauses to bless the family, which throws flowers and grain and invokes grace. Gifts of money are made to the Saint and are hung on a red ribbon tied to the belt of the statue. Especially for the Assumption the game of the ships is used, formed by ten young men who carry another ten on their shoulders and thus go around the town and sing (Delianova, Cetraro, Cittadella del Capo, etc.). For St. Joseph, almost all families set out a meal for three poor people: an old man, a woman, a child. In many places the relics of the sacred drama still live, evoking the Passion and death of Christ during the days of Holy Week: they are called "mortoro" or "affacciata" (from the meeting of Jesus with His Mother) or "pigghiata" (from the capture of Jesus): of this last there exists a script by an unknown author of the seventeenth century, in blank verse, with about thirty characters, besides the numerous extras.

Expressions of enthusiastic religious fervor are found in the companies of the "battenti", who, in the procession of Holy Week, continue the ancient custom of the flagellants (e.g., the "uffizianti" of Bova). Other popular dramatic forms are given by the carnival farces. Rich too is the heritage of lyrical songs (stambotti), narrative songs ("rumanze") and sacred songs ("orazioni" and "storie"): likewise that of fairy tales and legends. Popular art can boast the very beautiful production of the carpets of Longobucco and of the ceramics of Seminara and of other centers.

V. CALABRIAN CONCILIAR REGION

It is one of the regions into which Italy was divided by measures of the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory of 15 Feb. and 22 March 1919 and 29 Sept. 1933 (AAS, 11 [1919], pp. 72-74, 176; 25 [1933], p. 466), so that, in place of provincial councils, regional councils might be held.

It comprises the territories of the ecclesiastical provinces of Reggio Calabria and of S. Severina, as well as the archdioceses of Catanzaro, of Cosenza and Rossano, and the dioceses of Lungro, Mileto, S. Marco and Bisignano, Squillace.

In the chief town of the region (Reggio Calabria) is located the regional ecclesiastical tribunal for cases of nullity of marriage; an appeal against the sentences issued by it must be brought either to the Campanian regional tribunal (Naples) or to the Sacred Roman Rota (cf. Pius XI, motu proprio «Qua cura», 8 Dec. 1938, in AAS, 30 [1938], pp. 410-13). - See Pl. XXI.

Pio Ciprotti