CASSANO ALL'IONIO, Diocese of. - In the province of Cosenza. It extends from the Tyrrhenian to the Ionian Sea, has 108,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, 43 parishes, 75 diocesan priests and 9 regulars (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 very doubtful that it gave birth to Pope St. Eusebius (311). The existence of a Capsarius Cassitanus, who would have participated in the Roman Synod of Pope Hilary (465), considered as the apostle and first bishop of C., is pure legend, supported by Ughelli. It is certain, on the other hand, that C. is a diocese of Byzantine creation, succeeding Tempsa and Thurii, destroyed by the Lombards at the end of the 7th century. In the 9th century the Lombards had established gastaldates at C., Cosenza and Laino, as appears from 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 attested only by Greek sources. In the Synecdemus of Hierocles it does not appear in Notitia I, from the first half of the 9th century; whereas it is a suffragan of Reggio in Notitia III, from the time of Leo VI the Philosopher (899-911). It can 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 in a diploma of 1096 appears as vicar of Pope Urban II. But
Sasso is only the first Latin bishop of C., whereas a David, a Greek bishop, has been found, who pushes back the list of the prelates of C. by more than a century.
The diocese of C. in the 10th and 11th centuries was a monastic center, having within its territory the eparchy of Mercurion, comprised between Aieta, Orsomarso and Laino, where the most illustrious Greek Calabro-Sicilian ascetics gathered, namely Sts. Leoluca of Corleone, Christopher of Collesano with his sons Macarius and Sabas, Vitalis of Castronovo, Luke of Demena, Sicilians, and Sts. Nilus, Bartholomew, George and Stephen of Rossano, Proclus of Bisignano, Zechariah, John and Fantinus of Mercurion, Calabrians. Among the Greek monasteries are remembered that of St. Andrew of Cerchiara, of St. Basil Crateretes of Castrovillari, of St. Peter of Frascineto, of St. Mary of the Springs of Lungro, etc. Among the Latin monasteries, one notes the Cistercian abbey of Acquaformosa, a daughter house of Sambucina, which spread Gothic art in northern Calabria; the Dominican convent of Altomonte, St. Mary of Consolation, which long hosted Tommaso Campanella; the cenobium of the Conventuals of Castrovillari, founded in 1221, and St. Mary of Colloreto, near Morano, mother house of the Augustinian Congregation of the same name, founded in the 16th century by Bernardo Milizia of Rogliano.
Among the sacred monuments of the diocese, besides the cathedral of C. with its crypt, are cited the sanctuary of the Madonna del Castello of Castrovillari, which preserves memories of the primitive Norman construction; St. Mary of Consolation of Altomonte, from the 15th century, the church of St. Francis of Scalea; the Maddalena of Morano, etc.
In the diocese of C. were born Sts. Anthony and Gregory of C. and Pachomius of Cerchiara, Greek monks of the 10th century; Sts. Samuel, Angel and Donnolo of Castrovillari, of the band of the seven Franciscan martyrs of Ceuta of 1227, canonized by Leo X in 1516; from Castrovillari is also the blessed Giovanni Cozza, Observant, venerated at Cosenza in St. Francis of Assisi; from Saracena is the blessed Angelo Alparto, one of the first companions of St. Francis of Paola; from Laino the blessed Paolo Navarro, Jesuit martyr of 1622, beatified by Pius IX.
Bibliography8 works
Francesco Russo