CATANZARO, Diocese of. - The city of C., capital of the province of the same name in Calabria, rises between the gulfs of Squillace and St. Euphemia. It is of Byzantine origin and, because of its position, has had notable importance from the Norman period onward.

The origins of the diocese of C. are a subject of controversy among historians, many of whom deny any objective value to the Chronica Trium Tabernarum, which they consider a forgery of the 13th century, attributable to the canon Ruggero of Loritello, while others admit its substantial truthfulness. According to this source, C. is the heir of the see of Tres Tabernae, which corresponds to the present-day Taverna. There is record of the existence of this diocese in a Greek diploma of 1091, in which Teodoro Mesimeros signs himself bishop of Squillace, of Stilo and of Taverna. Pope Callistus II, having come to Calabria to meet with the Norman princes, is said to have transferred the see to C., of which he consecrated the Cathedral, giving it as a gift the body of St. Vitalian, who has become its patron. In more recent times the Chronica Trium Tabernarum has gained much ground through the work of Caspar, Jaffé and Fabre. The latter recalls that in the Liber Censuum, among the sees subject to the Holy See, Tres Tabernae also appears, whose bulls of Callistus II he recalls, edited by Jaffé, concluding: « On a contesté cette fondation et ces documents, mais ils resistent aux critiques et notre liste leur donne un appui solide ».

The see of Tres Tabernae, transferred to C. in the 12th century, lost its exemption and became a suffragan of Reggio, as is evident from the Provinciale Vetus of Albino (PL 98, 474), remaining such until 5 June 1927, when it was elevated to an archiepiscopal see.

The territory of the diocese comprises 5 vicariates, 46 parishes and more than 90 thousand souls, assisted by 63 secular priests and 12 regulars (1948). In C. one of the first regional seminaries of Italy arose, dedicated to Pius X and inaugurated in 1914. But at present a serious fire has rendered it unusable. The Cathedral is of good classical forms. It was restored in 1665 by the bishop Consalvo Caputo.

Bibliography12 works

BIBL.: A. Barrio-Aceti, De antiquitate et situ Calabriae, Rome 1737, pp. 278-85; G. Fiore, Calabria illustrata, II, Naples 1743, pp. 297-301; Ughelli, IX, pp. 366-68; Anon., s. v. in Enc. dell'Ecclesiastico, IV, pp. 543-45; P. Fabre, Liber Censuum Eccl. Romanae, I, Paris 1905, pp. 19, 247-48; E. Caspar, Die Chronik von Tres Tabernae (Quellen und Forschungen herausgegeben vom Königl. Preussisch. historisch. Institut in Rom, 1), Rome 1907, pp. 1-56; F. Chalandon, Histoire de la domination Normande en Italie méridionale, I, Paris 1907, p. 323; R. Zeno, La Chronica Trium Tabernarum e una cronaca inedita del sec. XIV, in Arch. st. calabrese, 1 (1915), pp. 31-39; P. Battifol, La Chronique de Taverna et les fausses décrétales de C., in Rev. des questions hist., 51 (1916), p. 235 ff.; 53 (1918), p. 519 ff.; 54 (1919), p. 506 ff.; E. Jamison, Note e documenti per la storia dei conti normanni di C., in Arch. stor. Calabria e Luconia, 1 (1926), p. 454.

Francesco Russo

@incollection{ec3_catanzaro_diocesi_di, author = {Russo, Francesco}, title = {Catanzaro, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1085--1086}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/catanzaro-diocesi-di} }

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Catanzaro, Diocese of

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