CASSANO ALL'IONIO, diocese of. — In the province of Cosenza. It extends from the Tyrrhenian to the Ionian Sea and has 108,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, 43 parishes, 75 diocesan priests, and 9 religious priests (1948).
C. is a very ancient city, but it is not certain that it derives from Cosa or Cossa, perhaps situated in the territory of Thurii; it is highly doubtful that it gave birth to Pope St. Eusebius (311). The existence of a Capsarius Cassitanus, who is supposed to have participated in the Roman Synod of Pope Hilary (465) and to have been regarded as the apostle and first bishop of C., is a pure legend, given credence by Ughelli. It is certain, instead, that C. is a diocese of Byzantine foundation, succeeding Tempsa and Thurii, destroyed by the Lombards at the end of the seventh century. In the ninth century the Lombards had established gastaldates at C., Cosenza, and Laino, as is shown by the treaty of 847, in which Benevento and Salerno defined their respective zones of influence. At that time the two dioceses of Cosenza and Bisignano appear, but not C., which is known only from Greek sources. In the Synecdemus of Hierocles it does not appear in Notitia I, from the first half of the ninth century; whereas it is a suffragan of Reggio in Notitia III, from the time of Leo VI the Philosopher (899–911). It may therefore be held that it was erected after Nicephorus Phocas reconquered and reorganized Calabria. The Norman conquest brought no changes; C. always remained a suffragan of Reggio.
The series of bishops begins with Sasso, who appears in a diploma of 1096 as vicar of Pope Urban II. But
Sasso is only the first Latin bishop of C., whereas a David, Greek bishop, has been found, carrying the list of the bishops of C. back by more than a century.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries the diocese of C. was a monastic center, having within its territory the eparchy of Mercurion, situated between Aieta, Orsomarso, and Laino, where the most illustrious Greek Calabro-Sicilian ascetics gathered: Sts. Leoluca of Corleone, Christopher of Collesano with his sons Macarius and Saba, Vitalis of Castronovo, and Luke of Demena, Sicilians; and Sts. Nilus, Bartholomew, George, and Stephen of Rossano, Proclus of Bisignano, Zacharias, John, and Fantinus of Mercurion, Calabrians. Among the Greek monasteries may be mentioned that of S. Andrea of Cerchiara, S. Basilio Craterete of Castrovillari, S. Pietro of Frascineto, S. Maria delle Fonti of Lungro, etc. Among the Latin monasteries, noteworthy are the Cistercian abbey of Acquaformosa, a daughter house of Sambucina, which spread Gothic art throughout northern Calabria; the Dominican convent of Altomonte, S. Maria della Consolazione, which hosted Tommaso Campanella for a long time; the Conventual friars’ cenobium of Castrovillari, founded in 1221; and S. Maria di Colloreto, near Morano, the mother house of the Augustinian Congregation of the same name, founded in the sixteenth century by Bernardo Milizia da Rogliano.
Among the sacred monuments of the diocese, besides the cathedral of C. with its crypt, mention should be made of the shrine of the Madonna del Castello of Castrovillari, which preserves memories of the primitive Norman construction; S. Maria della Consolazione of Altomonte, from the fifteenth century; the church of S. Francesco of Scalea; the Maddalena of Morano, etc.
The diocese of C. gave birth to Sts. Anthony and Gregory of C. and Pachomius of Cerchiara, Greek monks of the tenth century; to Sts. Samuel, Angelus, and Donnolo of Castrovillari, among the seven Franciscan martyrs of Ceuta of 1227, canonized by Leo X in 1516; Castrovillari was also the birthplace of Bl. Giovanni Cozza, an Observant friar, venerated at Cosenza in S. Francesco d’Assisi; Saracena was the birthplace of Bl. Angelo Alparto, one of the first companions of St. Francis of Paola; and Laino of Bl. Paolo Navarro, a Jesuit martyr of 1622, beatified by Pius IX.