CHIOS. - Island in the Aegean Sea, already famous 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 function is entrusted to the archbishop of Naxos). Already at the ecumenical councils of Chalcedon (451), of Constantinople (680), and the Second of Nicaea (787) the acts were signed by a bishop of C. The Latin bishopric was founded after the establishment of the Latin empire of Constantinople (1204); however, only from the year 1329 is the series of Latin bishops known. C., after the domination of the Genoese Republic (1346-1566), was subjected to the Turks (1566-1912). The Catholic Church experienced in C. its most flourishing life in the middle of the 16th century, when there were counted there 8000 Catholics, 14 secular priests and 22 religious priests (Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Capuchins). C. has given to the Catholic Church many bishops, among them the three cardinals Vincenzo, Benedetto, and Orazio Giustiniani. The islands of Samos and Mytilene are under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of C. Today the Catholics number 150.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Eubel, I, pp. 184-85; II, p. 126; III, p. 165; IV, p. 149; G. Hofmann, Vescovadi della Grecia, I: Chios (Orientalia christiana, 34, 1), Rome 1934, pp. 1-162; Annuario pontificio, 1948.

Giorgio Hofmann

@incollection{ec3_chios, author = {Hofmann, Giorgio}, title = {Chios}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1550}, 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/chios} }

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