CHIOS

CHIOS. – An island in the Aegean Sea, already renowned in the 3rd century for the glorious death of the martyr St. Isidore. It has a Greek bishop and a Latin bishop (recently only an apostolic administrator whose duties are entrusted to the Archbishop of Naxos). Already at the Ecumenical Councils of Chalcedon (451), Constantinople (680), and Nicaea II (787), the acts were subscribed by a bishop of Chios. The Latin bishopric was established after the founding of the Latin Empire of Constantinople (1204); however, the series of Latin bishops is known only from the year 1329 onwards. After the rule of the Genoese Republic (1346–1566), Chios was subjected to the Turks (1566–1912). The Catholic Church experienced its most flourishing period on Chios in the mid-16th century, when there were 8,000 Catholics, 14 secular priests, and 22 religious priests (Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Capuchins). Chios has given the Catholic Church many bishops, including the three cardinals Vincenzo, Benedetto, and Orazio Giustiniani. The islands of Samos and Lesbos fall under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Chios. Today, there are 150 Catholics.