CROTONE, DIOCESE OF. — In the province of Catanzaro. It was a very powerful republic, founded by the Achaeans and Corinthians, rival of Sybaris, which it finally overthrew in 510 BC. In 277 BC it was garrisoned by the Romans; but in the Second Punic War it sided with Hannibal, who in 203 BC embarked from its port to return to Africa. In 194 BC a Roman colony was established there. In the Middle Ages it was garrisoned by the Byzantines. The Angevins granted it to the Ruffo of Catanzaro (1284), who promoted agricultural development. Charles V granted it extensive privileges, built the castle there, and strengthened its port. In recent years it has developed considerably as an industrial centre and agricultural market, and its port is very active.
Legend holds that Christianity was introduced there by Dionysius the Areopagite, who is said to have become its first bishop. Setting aside such unfounded tales, it is certain that C. appears among the oldest dioceses of Calabria. Gams records a bishop Flavian in 537. Pope Vigilius in 551 names Bishop Jordanes, whom some identify with the historian who continued Cassiodorus. In 592 St Gregory the Great entrusted its administration to the bishop of Squillace. In 597 C. was sacked by the Lombards, and the holy Pontiff ransomed its inhabitants, who had been enslaved by the barbarians.
In the 9th century the Byzantines reduced it almost to nothing, creating in its territory an entire metropolis, S. Severina, with 5 suffragan dioceses, erected at the expense of C., which was declared a suffragan of Reggio, with only a small coastal strip of territory. It remained thus until 1818, when the territory of Isola Capo Rizzuto was added to II.
C. long maintained the Greek rite. In 1217 Honorius III was obliged to grant its bishop Giovanni permission to celebrate in both Greek and Latin; in 1254 Innocent IV placed over it the Franciscan Nicholas of Durazzo “skilled in both languages,” who was later sent by Urban IV as nuncio to Michael Palaeologus.
The cathedral is in Neoclassical style: it contains the sanctuary of the Madonna di Capocolonna, which takes its name from a surviving column of the temple of Juno Lacinia. The seminary was founded by Bishop G. Caraffa (1664–90).
From 1928 to 1947 it was united *in persona episcopi* with the archbishop of S. Severina; at present the arrangement is reversed. The diocese of C. covers 150 sq km; it has 9 parishes, its population is about 40,000, with 20 diocesan priests and 2 regulars (1948).