CAPRI. — Island in the Gulf of Naples, with an area of 10.36 sq km, called Capreae by Virgil (Aen., VII, 735), Ovid (Met., XV, 709), Pliny (Nat. hist., III, 6, 822). The ancient town was closer to Marina Grande than the present one. In the time of Pope Gregory I (590–604) it was dependent on the bishop of Sorrento. Around that time is the only known Christian inscription, that of a Geladinus sector (CIL, X, 1, 6810).
The first certain bishop is John, consecrated in the year 987 by Leo, archbishop of Amalfi, by order of Pope John XV, though exempt from cathedral jurisdiction (Ughelli, VII, p. 353).
It remained under the archbishop of Amalfi until 1818, when the diocese was united with Sorrento.
The oldest church of Capri is that of St. Constance (11th century), with a central plan; the cathedral, dedicated to St. Stephen, was rebuilt in 1683 and is now a collegiate church. The monastery of St. Stephen is known from as early as 591, when its abbot was Savinus; it is still mentioned in the time of Gregory II (719–29). The charterhouse of St. James was built between 1371 and 1374 by Count Giacomo Arcucci, secretary to Joanna I of Anjou; suppressed in 1808, it was reopened on 23 September 1936 by the Canons Regular of the Lateran to serve as a center of religious and cultural life.