CORSICA. — In extent, it is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean, although covering less than half the area of the two largest (8722 sq km). Geographically, it forms a unit with nearby Sardinia, from which it is separated by a narrow (12 km) stretch of sea (the Strait of Bonifacio). It is almost entirely mountainous, with considerable variations in appearance. The interior is traversed by rugged mountain ranges, culminating at 2710 m in Mount Cinto. The climate, temperate and maritime in the coastal regions, becomes milder or even extreme as one moves farther from the sea; rainfall, everywhere sufficient for agricultural needs (800–900 mm annually), is greater on the side facing the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The spontaneous vegetation, dominated by forest and scrubland, has given way to cultivation over relatively limited areas, which have diminished considerably during the last twenty years. Both pastoralism and agriculture yield less than they could because of the scarcity of labour, lack of capital, backward techniques, and inadequate government measures (land reclamation). Chestnuts, olive oil, citrons, and fruit are the most notable products. Pastoralism is of little importance, fishing is almost entirely neglected, and industry is virtually nonexistent.
The population, which has doubled over the last 150 years, amounted (1946) to 268,000 inhabitants (333,000 in 1936), corresponding to an average density of 30 inhabitants per sq km (31 in the province of Nuoro, but 43 in Sardinia as a whole). The only two noteworthy urban centres are Bastia (52,000 inhabitants) and Ajaccio (31,000 inhabitants).
C. has been French since 1768. The Italians, who appear in the censuses among the foreigners (3.4% of the total population), probably number more than 10,000.
Giuseppe Caraci
II. DIOCESES AND ANCIENT HISTORY
There is no certain information concerning the origins of Christianity in C. The bishop Florenzio, regarded by some as the evangelizer of C. and venerated on the island, was perhaps an African martyr whose relics may have been transported to the island by African refugees fleeing the Vandal persecution (Lanzoni, I, pp. 699 and 1097).Lanzoni holds that Christianity reached the island through sailors, soldiers, and freedmen. The fleet of Misenum had two stations in C.: Aleria and Mariana, both on the eastern coast; in the interior, in the time of s. Gregorio (597), the mountains of the diocese of Aleria were still inhabited by pagans; Pope Gregorio Magno had a church and a baptistery erected on Nigeuno (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1488).
At the same time there were five dioceses on the island, all on the coast. On the eastern coast were the dioceses of: Mariana, on the Golo River; its first securely attested bishop dates from the year 649. Aleria, at the mouth of the Tavignano, was in the year 591 «iamdiu pontificatu destituto» (Jaffé - Wattenbach, 1146); in that year Martino, bishop of Taina, was transferred there; he was succeeded by Pietro (ibid., 1402). Taina, not far from Aleria, was invaded and sacked in 591, while Martino was bishop there. On the western coast: Ajaccio, which in 601 had long been without a bishop (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1850); Saona, which in the year 591 was likewise without a pastor.
The other two martyrs venerated in C., Amanza and Laurina, are not mentioned in the hagiographical sources.
III. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, papal authority is seen taking an interest in public works in C. as on the Italian mainland. Gregory the Great opened roads and transformed convents into fortresses to defend the people, a task neglected by the governmental authorities. In 774, after Charlemagne confirmed Pepin’s donation, C. nominally, if not in fact, became part of II. Under the Franks there were frequent incursions by(phot. 3'con)
CORSICA - Corsican Types.
Saracens, who long ravaged the island, until around the middle of the 11th century, when the combined forces of the two maritime Republics of Pisa and Genoa succeeded in driving away the grave danger. In 1078 Gregory VII, reaffirming papal sovereignty over C., granted the bishop of Pisa the powers of legate, provoking the jealousy and discontent of the Republic of Genoa. Thus, in the two following centuries (12th and 13th), C. represented one of the principal causes of discord between the two Republics, which fought bitterly for dominion over the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea, until in 1284, at the Battle of Meloria, the Genoese inflicted a tremendous and irreparable defeat on the Pisans. But, angered by the anti-Guelph policy of the two rival Republics, Pope Boniface VIII conferred the kingdoms of C. and Sardinia upon James II, King of Aragon, who, however, was unable immediately to move to conquer and occupy the two islands.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, struggles between the nobles and the common people, with varying fortunes, afflicted C., provoking in turn the intervention of various states and princes, including Pope Eugene IV, who in 1446 sent there his own legate and a body of troops. To escape a difficult and precarious situation, in 1453 the Corsicans turned to the Banco di S. Giorgio, to which Genoa ceded its sovereign rights; after fierce efforts, the Bank succeeded in striking a mortal blow against the local feudal system and in preserving its rule over the island until the time of the harsh conflict between France and Philip II of Spain. At that point, under the leadership of Sampiero Corso, a brave and capable captain, the Corsicans rebelled against Genoa, which was allied with the Spaniards, and took up arms in favor of the Franco-Turkish forces: the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, however, compelled the French to evacuate the occupied territory and C., after further attempts at rebellion and the ambush and killing of Sampiero (1567), returned under the full dominion of Genoa.
From then on, the Republic sought to reorganize the island administratively and to restore order, tranquility, and ecclesiastical discipline, which had been profoundly disturbed by the war, internal unrest, and the prolonged absence of the bishops. The Holy See naturally also contributed to this effort: already earlier, Julius III, in full agreement with St. Ignatius of Loyola, had sent to C., with the title of apostolic visitor, Fr. Silvestro Landini, a Jesuit, who preached there with great success, bringing about an extraordinary conversion of the people; a little later, in 1570, Pius V appointed St. Alessandro Sauli bishop of Aleria. He remained there for twenty years, devoting himself to the fulfillment of his pastoral duties, striving above all to extinguish enmities and instill in people’s souls sentiments of a true Christian life. Later still, in 1595, Clement VIII, at the request of the Republic of Genoa, sent various missionaries there, and six years later two apostolic visitors from the same Society of Jesus: at their suggestion, in 1602, the opening of a first college at Bastia was decided upon, followed in 1617 by a second at Ajaccio.
For more than a century and a half, C. remained peaceful or resigned under Genoese rule; but in 1729, because of the exorbitant manner in which a tax was collected, popular revolts against the established authorities began again. In the following years, a diet at Corte (1735) declared the island free from every political dependence on the Republic and proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary as its protectress. Various so-called national governments then arose, the last of them headed by Pasquale Paoli, the hero of Corsican independence, from 1755 to 1769, until he was defeated by an army of the King of France, to whom Genoa had made a complete cession of all its rights over the island (v. PAOLI, PASQUALE).
After the conquest, C. was placed under military rule and reduced to obedience: only twenty years later, on 30 November 1789, the National Assembly of Paris subjected it to the common law and declared it outright united with France, that is, part of the national territory. Later, the Concordat of 1802 reduced the island’s five dioceses to a single one, with its see at Ajaccio. In a much more recent period, that is, during the time of Pope Pius X and Cardinal Merry del Val, negotiations took place between the Holy See and the French government to bring about the division of the island into at least two dioceses, a division demanded by its own geographical conditions; the negotiations had already reached an advanced stage when various reasons, principally the diplomatic rupture between the two parties, brought everything to nothing.
At Ajaccio there is a shrine of Our Lady of Mercy, who appeared at Savona in 1636 and is the patroness of the Corsican capital.
At Cargese there still exists a parish of the Byzantine rite, whose history has been greatly troubled. The Genoese, in fact, transported a colony of Greeks from the Peloponnese to Paomia in 1676; from this village it was expelled to Ajaccio and in 1775 transported to Cargese. - Vedi tav. XXXIII.