CATANIA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - A city in Sicily at the foot of Etna and almost at the center between the two extreme points of the island's eastern coast. The key to the industrial and commercial movement of all Sicily, it has a wholly modern character owing to the earthquake of 1696 that destroyed its ancient monuments. It is an archiepiscopal see without suffragans. The Cathedral, dedicated to St. Agatha, patroness of the city, is the only parish of the city, assisted by several branch churches. The territory of the archdiocese is vast (1,331 sq km), extending over 23 municipalities of the province of the same name, and it counts 296 churches, 74 parishes, 309 diocesan priests, 170 regulars, 26 houses of male religious and 71 of female religious, besides 10 educational institutes for boys and 23 for girls. The inhabitants number 430,000, all Catholics (1948).
I. HISTORY
Founded around 730 B.C. and enlarged by a colony of Chalcidians, C. became one of the principal cities of the island and for three centuries governed itself by its own laws. In 477 B.C. it was taken by storm by Hiero of Syracuse, who, having relegated the inhabitants of C. to Lentini, repopulated it with Greeks and Syracusans. Reconquered by Ducetius (461 B.C.), it later suffered plundering at the hands of the troops of Dionysius I of Syracuse, who entrusted it to a band of Campanian mercenaries in his service (403 B.C.), until a few years later (396 B.C.) it fell under the dominion of the Carthaginians. In 353 B.C. it was occupied by the Greeks, but it did not regain its ancient liberties until Timoleon of Corinth held its government. When in 278 Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, C. was among the cities that received him amicably, but in 263 the centuries-long Roman domination over C. began (Eutropius, II, 19). A "civitas decumana" at the time of the republic (Cicero, In Verr., III, 103), in the 1st century it enjoyed great economic prosperity. Later declared a colony by Augustus (Strabo, VI, 268, 272; Pliny, Nat. hist., III, 89), it remained such until the end of the Empire. In the 4th century it was still pointed out as the most beautiful city of Sicily after Syracuse.
During the barbarian invasions it had to suffer at the hands both of the Goths and of the Ostrogoths; it had to endure the last incursions during the war between the Byzantines and the Goths (549-51). From this moment until well into the 9th century C. fell under the peaceful tyranny of the successors of Justinian. After 853 the city was again subjected to intermittent incursions on the part of the Muslims, into whose hands it definitively fell in 974. With this new
(phot. Anderson)
With this new domination the fortunes of Christianity too were bound to be seriously compromised.
The origins of Christianity in C. are obscure, as indeed in all Sicily. The name of the city appears several times in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, but its certain martyrs are two: Agatha (v.) and Euplus, both venerated early in Sicily and beyond. There exist the Acta Eupli, which in their present recension do not go back to the time of the persecutions (BHL, 2728) but which probably derive from contemporary acts now lost (cf. P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Note agiografiche, VII [*Studi e Testi*, 49], Rome 1928, pp. 1-54). From these acts it is inferred that Euplus was martyred between 303 and 304. Consequently the Church of C. is earlier than the 4th century. Bearing in mind the historical conditions of the spread of the Gospel in the Mediterranean, it is nevertheless not rash to trace the origins of the Church of C. back to the 2nd century. There is, however, a lack of reliable information concerning the constitution of its hierarchy. Legend holds that the first bishop of the city was Beryllus, consecrated by St. Peter together with Pancras of Taormina and Marcian of Syracuse. The source of this report is the "Life and Martyrdom of St. Pancras of Taormina" (BHG, 1410), a late and fabulous document from the period of the iconoclast persecution, which it is impossible to believe. Likewise the Severus or Severinus, who is also said to have been bishop of C. in the time of Licinius (307-23), is mentioned in the "Acts of Sts. Alphius and Cyrinus," composed between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century.
As for the Domninus who is among the subscribers of the Council of Ephesus, and the Paulus present at that of Chalcedon, these were Eastern bishops and not of C. The first historically attested bishop is Fortunatus, who in 515 was sent with Ennodius of Pavia by Pope Hormisdas to Constantinople (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 774). Later one encounters Elpidius in the time of Pope Pelagius (558-60), from whom he received consecration (ibid., 892, 992, 1030). During the pontificate of Gregory the Great the Catania see was in the hands of Leo (ibid., 1139, 1994). Information about the bishops of the 7th century is still scanty: only a John is known, present at the Roman Synod of 649, and his successor Julian, who was at that of Constantinople in 678. Meanwhile the iconoclast persecutions inaugurated by Leo the Isaurian in the first decades of the 8th century mark the beginning of a detachment of the dioceses of Sicily from the Roman patriarchate. C. follows the fortunes of the others and is subjected to the Byzantine patriarchate.
On the see of C. from this moment there are Greek-speaking bishops such as St. Leo II, who lived in the time of Leo the Isaurian, and Theodore, present at the Council of Nicaea of 787, and Euthymius, a friend of Photius (850). Toward the middle of the 8th century C. was elevated to the rank of autocephalous archiepiscopal see, and this status was recognized for it also later, in the time of Leo the Wise; indeed under John Tzimiskes (869-97), C. figures among the great ecclesiastical metropolises to which the dioceses of Sicily are subject. With the Arab conquest the organization established by the Byzantines was destroyed forever, since after the coming of the Normans C. rose to new life, but as a simple diocese.
The Norman conquest of Sicily began in 1061 and with the help of the emir of C., who offered himself to the new conquerors as an ally. The city fell into their hands in 1071, but ten years later it revolted to give itself back to the Muslims of Syracuse. This suggests that the inhabitants during the Muslim domination had converted to the Mohammedan religion. After the reconquest, unlike other cities of the island, it was given in fief by Roger I to the titular of the abbey of S. Agata founded by the same count of Sicily: the Breton Anserius, formerly prior of S. Eufemia in Calabria (1091). Urban II, approving his appointment, consecrated the elect as bishop, establishing that for the future the abbot of S. Agata should at the same time be bishop of the diocese (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 5460). Immediately afterward, once the boundaries of the new diocese were established, Roger had the construction of the abbey and of the Cathedral begun. From this moment and until the second half of the 16th century C. would have its regular chapter formed of Benedictine monks. Anserius lived, it seems, until 1124; to his successor Maurice it fell to receive (1126) the relics of St. Agatha brought back from Constantinople. A few years later the papal schism of 1130-38 made its effects felt on C. as well. Anacletus II, supported by Roger II, elevating Messina to metropolitan see (ibid., 8423), subjected C. to it as a suffragan, whereas Urban II had subjected it directly to the Holy See. This acquiescence was paid for after the death of Anacletus II; the successors of Maurice remained for thirty years mere electi whom Rome refused to recognize. The situation became normal in the time of Alexander III, who in 1168 ratified the election of John Aiello (ibid., 11415), who died shortly afterward beneath the ruins of the Cathedral with 40 monks in the earthquake of 1169. At the beginning of the [Norman] domination the bishops of C. are prominent personalities at court: Roger (1195-1207), tutor of Frederick II; Gualtiero di Palearia (1207-32), formerly tutor of Frederick and chancellor of the kingdom, later (1221) fallen into disgrace and gone into exile. The troubled political situation of those years and the struggle between the Swabian and the Holy See meant that the see remained vacant for many years. Still in 1258 Ottone Capuzio, elected by Innocent IV as bishop, had been unable to take possession of his diocese. The calm re-established after the installation of Charles of Anjou as king of Sicily did not last long: when the revolts of 1282 broke out and the Angevins were driven from the island, the Sicilians, assembled in parliament at C. — from then on the seat of government — passed the crown into the hands of Peter II of Aragon (1282); hence the beginning of a long dispute between Angevins and Aragonese, in which the Holy See ranged itself on the side of the former. The political situation had its repercussions on the religious one, and Boniface VIII, who had sent to C. Cardinal Gerard of Parma to strengthen the position of Robert of Anjou, who had momentarily installed himself there (1299) with the help of a conspiracy hatched against Frederick III, could not obtain the entry of the bishop Gentile elected by him, who died in 1304 outside his see. Leonardo Fieschi, who succeeded him (1304-31), after 1314 definitively abandoned his diocese. Even Niccolò di Ceccano, who was to take his place, remained a mere electus and died in Rome (1339), since in that same year the Cassinese Benedictine Niccolò de Grelis was appointed. Meanwhile the death of Frederick III (1337) threw Sicily into full anarchy during the brief reign of Peter II (d. 1342) and that of the inexperienced Louis, who died of dissipation in 1355. C. as the seat of government was the center of bitter struggles, which devastated the territory and degraded royal authority. The episcopal see, however, had a distinguished leader in the Franciscan Gerard Odon (1342-48), formerly a disciple of Duns Scotus, a great theologian and minister general of his Order. As early as 1331 John XXII had sent him to Italy to carry out a work of pacification. The life of the diocese, through the activity of its bishops such as John of Luna (1348) and Martial (1355), continues to be intimately linked to political events, until it becomes part of events of broader scope such as the Western Schism. It was erected into an archdiocese by Gregory XVI on 28 July 1844.
II. CULTURAL INSTITUTES
The abbey of S. Nicolò occupies the foremost place in Catania's cultural history of the eighteenth century, with its rich library, museum and cabinet of natural sciences, and its learned monks: Bartolomeo d'Alessandro (d. 1919), Emiliano Guttadauro (d. 1856), the archbishop Nicolò Tedeschi, a distinguished theologian (d. 1741), Placido Scammacca (d. 1787) and above all Vito M. Amico, a distinguished historian.
Today, alongside the old Benedictine library, two other libraries founded around the same period still remain: the University Library (18th century), begun with the private collection of G. B. Caruso and with that of the Jesuits confiscated in 1767, and the Ventimiliana, attached to the University, which is the old private library of the bishop of C. Salvatore Ventimiglia, who donated it to the University in 1783.
The Athenaeum of Catania is the greatest cultural institution, to whose foundation are linked, besides the names of Alfonso I the Magnanimous, who decreed its establishment in 1434, and Eugene IV, who sanctioned its establishment in 1444, also those of the famous jurist and future archbishop of Palermo Nicolò Tedeschi (1383-1445) and the bishop of C. Giovanni de Primis (d. 1449), both citizens of Catania and future cardinals.
III. MONUMENTS
Of the city's notable monuments, besides the Benedictine church of S. Nicolò, built to a design by the Roman architect G. B. Contini, mention should be made of the Cathedral, which of the Norman-era construction preserves only the three massive apses. The church, left unfinished in its façade, has no equal for grandeur among the other churches of Sicily.
After the earthquake of 1696 the reconstruction was entrusted to G. B. Vaccarini, author of the façade and of the urban planning of the city. Worthy of note inside is the funeral monument of the viceroy Ferdinando de Acuna by the Messinese sculptor Antonello da Fieri. Also notable is the church of the S. Carcere with its thirteenth-century portal that once adorned the façade of the Cathedral. One of the most significant eighteenth-century complexes of C. is found in via Crociferi with the church of S. Giuliano on one side and on the other the church of S. Benedetto and that of S. Francesco Borgia with the old college of the Jesuits, today a charitable hospice. In the convent of S. Niccolò, frescoes removed from the Roman catacombs, much retouched. — See Pl. LX.
Bibliography
In particular the old erudite works of: P. Carrera, Delle memorie historiche della città di C., 2 vols., Catania 1639-42; J. B. De Grossis, Catanese decachordum sive novissima sacrae catanensis Ecclesiae notitia..., 2 vols., ibid. 1642-47; id., Catana sacra sive de episcopis catanensis, ibid. 1654; V. M. Amico, Catania illustrata, 4 vols., ibid. 1740-46; R. Pirri, Sicilia sacra, 3rd ed., I, Palermo 1733, pp. 513-97; F. Ferrara, Storia di C., ibid. 1829; V. Cordaro Clarenza, Osservazioni sopra la storia di C., 4 vols., Catania 1833-34. As regards recent scholarly bibliography, for ancient history see Lanzoni, pp. 624-29; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Note agiografiche, VII (Studi e Testi, 49), Rome 1928, pp. 1-75; G. Libertini, Tarde iscrizioni catanesi e bolli bizantini, in Arch. stor. Sic. orient., 27 (1931), p. 50 ff.; id., C. nell'età bizantina, ibid., 28 (1932), pp. 242-68; H. Achelis, Römische Katabombenbilder in C., Berlin 1932; A. Ferrua, Osservazioni sulle iscrizioni cristiane catanesi, in Bollettino storico catanese, 3 (1938), pp. 33-59; B. Pacu, Arte e civiltà della Sicilia antica, IV, Rome 1949, pp. 9 f., 35 f., 112 f., etc.
For the medieval period, besides the well-known work of E. Caspar, Roger II, Innsbruck 1904, pp. 613-27 and the more recent one of L. T. White, Latin Monasticism in Norman Sicily, Cambridge, Mass. 1938, pp. 104-17, one must bear in mind, for the episcopal succession, the papal registers published to date: G. Pressutti, Regesta Honorii papae, Rome 1881; Ch. Grandjean, Les registres de Benoît XI, Paris 1883; G. Dizard, Les registres de Boniface VIII, ibid. 1896; E. Jordan, Les registres de Clément IV, ibid. 1893; C. Bourell de la Roncière, J. de Loye and A. Coulon, Les registres d'Alessandre IV, ibid. 1902; J.-M. Vidal, Benoît XII. Lettres communes, ibid. 1903 ff.; G. Mollat, Jean XXII (1316-34). Lettres communes, ibid. 1904-39; Eubel, I, pp. 176-77.
For the modern era: besides vols. III and IV of Eubel, pp. 174-75 and 141-42, cf. also for the most recent period: V. Messina, Biografie dei vescovi cataneri dei secc. XVIII e XIX, in La Sicilia sacra, 5 (1904), pp. 4-26, 142-62, 289-313, 445-66; 6 (1905), pp. 126-41, 228-50, 395-421; cf. also F. Coco Liccardelli, Sacerdoti catanesi memorabili del sec. XVIII, ibid., 3 (1901), pp. 215-18, 268-74. For cultural history, besides R. Sabbadini - M. Catalano, Storia documentata della R. Università di C., 2 vols., Catania 1898-1913, see also V. Casagrandi, L'Archivio della R. Università di C., ibid. 1897 and the commemorative articles for the centenary in Archivio storico per la Sicilia orientale, 30 (1934), pp. 182-398; M. Gaudioso, L'abbazia di S. Nicolò l'Arena di C., ibid., 25 (1929), pp. 199-243; C. Naselli, Letteratura e scienza nel convento di S. Nicolò l'Arena, ibid., pp. 245-323. For the artistic history of C. see above all R. Pennisi, Notizie storiche sulla cattedrale di C. e sull'offresco della grande abside, in Asso, 23 (1927), pp. 249-96; G. Basile, Le opere di Antonio da Freri nella cappella di S. Agata della cattedrale di C., ibid., 28 (1932), pp. 95-121; F. Fichera, G. B. Vaccarini e l'architettura del Sestecento in Sicilia, 2 vols., Rome 1934; Cottineau, I, coll. 631-32.
Mario Scaduto