MESSINA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City of northeastern Sicily, on the strait of the same name that connects the Mediterranean to the Tyrrhenian. It is an archiepiscopal see with 3 suffragans (Nicosia, Lipari and Patti). Despite the dismemberment of the archdiocese (19th century), the jurisdiction of its Ordinary still extends over a vast territory.
Out of 400,000 inhabitants it counts 399,000 Catholics, distributed in 250 parishes, served by 294 diocesan priests and 160 regulars, one seminary, 25 male religious communities and 98 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 269).
I. HISTORY
The origins of M. go back to approximately 755 B.C., when a group of pirates from the Chalcidian colony of Cumae laid the foundations of ancient Zancle, populated years later by other groups of colonists coming directly from Chalcis and Euboea.
The change of the name of Zancle to Messene (ca. 494 B.C.), confirmed by numismatics, came about through the action of the tyrant of Rhegium, Anaxilas. Having freed itself after thirty years from its subjection, M. governed itself with its own regime (461-405), yet suffered the repercussions of a political upheaval broader than the factional conflicts that were then taking shape. Thus when Athens seized Mylae (Milazzo; 426 B.C.), the city gave itself over to the Athenians, only to pass later (406) to the side of Syracuse when the latter went to war against Carthage; it suffered, however, the atrocious Punic vengeance, which razed it to the ground in 396 B.C. After the death of Dionysius of Syracuse (354 B.C.), the anti-Syracusan reaction led by Hippon, which oriented itself toward Mamercus of Catania, was paid for dearly, and the city had to submit to the hegemony of Timoleon first and of Agathocles afterward. Only after the latter's death (289 B.C.) did the state of anarchy into which the city had fallen offer Rome a pretext for intervening. It was stormed and taken forever in 263 B.C., but obtained the status of civitas foederata.
Having become, thanks to its strategic position, the most important naval base of the Romans during the First Punic War, after the final victory (241 B.C.) it received from Rome a privileged position that allowed it to attain an unusual material prosperity. In the administrative reorganization that followed the triumph of Augustus, while the rest of Sicily was divided into coloniae and municipia, M. had the unique privilege of being counted among the oppida civium Romanorum (Pliny, Hist. nat., III, 88).
After the fall of the Empire it was subject to vicissitudes common to all Sicily. Under the Goths it had a military garrison and a comes civitatis (Cassiodorus, Variae, VIII, 26, 27); it was stormed by Belisarius in 547 and endured the siege of Totila two years later (Procopius, De bello Gotico, III, 30, 39).
But the Byzantines managed to hold it, and their domination over the city and the rest of the island was to last until the Muslim conquest (10th century).
The Christian origins of M. and especially of its hierarchy are obscure. The passage of St. Felix, bishop of Tibiuca (BHL, 2894-95), through M. is a late interpolation in the Passio of the saint. Nor is the Passio of Sts. Peter and Paul by Pseudo-Marcellus (BHL, 6657-62) reliable, according to which St. Paul on his journey from Syracuse to Rome would have ordained the first bishop of M., by the name of Bacchilus. Rightly, therefore, Pirri (v. bibl., p. 316) noted that no bishop of M. was known before Eucarpus, a bishop who in 502 assisted at the Roman Synod held by Pope Symmachus (Mansi, VIII, p. 252), while another Eucarpus (558-69) was entrusted by Pope Pelagius with the visitation of Catania, which lacked its own titular (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 977, 982). Later the Register of Gregory the Great reveals the existence of Felix (591-93) and Donus (595-603; Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1108, 1133, 1150, 1238, 1388, 1419 etc.). Nevertheless, the opinion that M. had its community already formed around the middle of the 3rd century is not unfounded.
Legend assigned to the Gothic period the martyrdom of St. Benedict's disciple Placidus, fabricated by the forger Peter the Deacon (cf. E. Caspar, Petrus Diaconus und die Monte Cassiner Fälschungen, Berlin 1909, pp. 47-72), who made him one and the same person as the martyr of the same name, whose mention the Jeronymian Martyrology (Martyr. Hieron., p. 451), much older, at least by a century.
Under the Isaurians, like the rest of Sicily, M. was subjected to the Byzantine patriarchate. Its bishops no longer appear in Rome, as had happened in 649 in the time of Martin I (Mansi, X, pp. 865, 1164) and at the end of the 7th century in the time of Pope Agatho (op. cit., XI, p. 774), but in Constantinople. Thus at the Second Synod of Nicaea of 787, in the compact group of the bishops of Sicily and Calabria, one finds Gaudious (op. cit., XIII, p. 139), just as Gregorius is found at the Synod of Constantinople of 868 (op. cit., XVI, p. 195). The third of the Notitiae episcopatuum (ca. the middle of the 8th century) counts M. among the 13 suffragans of Syracuse (ed. G. Parthey, Berlin 1866, p. 178); likewise the Notitia of the Armenian cleric Basil, and the legislation of Leo VI the Wise (886-911) in its successive recensions. Meanwhile the slow Muslim invasion, culminating in the fall of Syracuse (878), would leave to the Byzantine domination only the extreme north-eastern strip of Sicily, tenaciously defended by the Greeks until 965, when the fortress of Rametta fell. During this period M. was a refuge of Byzantine hermits and, despite the injuries suffered from the war, numerous Basilian monasteries continued to live there.
Having fallen into the power of the Normans (1060), it became the starting point of the conquest of Sicily. Depopulated, or nearly so, at the arrival of the new conquerors (Amatus of Montecassino, Storia dei Normanni, V, 10), a century later it was an international emporium with a large population, composed of ca. 70 thousand inhabitants (cf. G. Pardi, Storia demografica di M., in Nuova rivista storica, 5 [1921], pp. 31-37), predominantly Greek (U. Falcando, Liber de regno Siciliae, ed. G. B. Siracusa, Rome 1879, pp. 144, 148). The policy of Latinization pursued by the Normans meant that in M. Latin bishops were soon installed, such as Robert (1096), the first bishop, then William (ca. 1123) and Hugh (1130). The diocese, created in 1096, transferring there the see of Troia, was declared immediately subject to the Holy See, and later a metropolis by Alexander III (1166).
After the end of the Norman dynasty, the city's relations with the Swabians were not cordial. M. rebelled (1232), but the revolt was drowned in blood. Favorable to the Angevins, it did not stir to defend the cause of Conradno (1268) and was the last to rise in the War of the Vespers (1282). But Peter of Aragon knew how to win it over to his cause and that of his successors, to whom it remained faithful, except for a brief period (1356-66).
The events of the last two centuries left their mark on the religious life of the diocese. Thus, at the time of the struggle between Frederick II and Gregory IX, there were complaints of the intrusion of lay power into ecclesiastical administration and of vacancies of sees in the government of the local church. The same hardship occurred during the long struggle between the Angevins and the Aragonese. Archbishop Francesco Fontana, elected (1288) as successor of Rinaldo da Lentini (1272-85), on account of the war could not reach his see, which remained vacant until 1304, when Benedict XI appointed Guidotto de Tabiatis (1304-33) as his chaplain. The war materially struck many monasteries, which fell into ruin and were abandoned by their occupants, as Nicholas IV noted in 1290. The rapid decline of the Greek rite and clergy, still numerous toward the end of the 13th century, should also be noted. Once the Sicilian-Angevin war ended, there were the other difficulties caused by the great Western Schism; King Martin I, faced with the contenders, sought to remain neutral, but the bishops of M. (Maggiolo Lampugnano: 1382-92; Filippo Crispo: 1392-1426) remained faithful to Urban VI and his direct successors.
The history of M. in modern times is always tied to the thread of Spanish domination, first with the last Aragonese, then with the Habsburgs, who, in view of its strategic importance, showered it with great privileges, later abolished when the city rose up (1670) to give itself to France. Then followed the reigns of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy (1713-18), of Philip V of Bourbon (1718-19), of Charles VI of Austria (1720-34), of the Bourbons of Naples (1734-1860); in 1860 M. became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
The first proposal made to the Sicilian Parliament for the dismemberment of the archdiocese dates back to 1799. The initial oppositions were cut short by Pius VII in 1817, when, erecting the new diocese of Nicosia, he annexed to it a third of the Messinese territory. A second dismemberment took place in 1824: another 24 inhabited centers passed to form part of the diocese of Patti.
In these last two centuries tragic events have sorely tried the city and the territory of M. The earthquake of 1783 destroyed, besides numerous public buildings, many ancient churches, among them the old cathedral of St. Nicholas. The artistic heritage was further reduced by the earthquake of 1908, which razed the city to the ground. The ruins, repaired with thirty years of restoration work, were once again heaped up by the aerial bombardment of 1943, which destroyed the Cathedral. The work of reconstruction, however, is proceeding apace.
II. CULTURAL INSTITUTES
From the beginning of the 15th century M. was the seat of schools of grammar, entrusted to the court master Bono de Mariscalco, who gave lessons in the old church of Sts. Peter and Paul of the Pisans, which fell into ruin in 1783.
Later the Calabrian abbot Filippo Ruffo is found at M., professor of Greek for many years. Around 1460 the city was distinguished by the teaching of Constantine Lascaris.
Already in the time of Alfonso the Magnanimous, the city had officially requested the establishment of a Studium generale (1439), implemented only a century later by the Jesuits, called to M. by the viceroy G. de Vega (1548). With the founding of the University and the establishment of the free teaching practiced by the latter, the fortunes of public education changed noticeably. In 1596 the university institute passed under the direct dependence of the city Senate and survived until 1676, when it was abolished as a penalty for the revolt; it was restored by Ferdinand II (1838).
Various academies were founded in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries; one recalls that of the Abbarbicati (1636); the Fucina (1639); the Morale, for the study of moral theology (1700); the Ecclesiastica (1764), founded by Archbishop Di Blasi; the Peloritana (1729), which through reforms and transformations has survived to the present.
Libraries: famous for its collections of Greek manuscripts was that of the Basilians, founded by the archimandrite Luca in the time of the Norman kings, dispersed in the 17th century. Today barely ca. 300 codices remain in the University Library. The origins of the latter are connected with the bequest of Giacomo Longo (1728), later enriched by the library of the suppressed Jesuit College.
III. FAMOUS MEN
Only a few are mentioned: Luke the archimandrite, reformer of the Basilian discipline in the time of Roger II; the Carmelite St. Albert (d. in 1306 or 1307); the very popular figure of the blessed Eustochia (1437-91), a Poor Clare, foundress of the monastery of S. Maria di Montevergine. Among scientists: Giovanni Gatto, a Dominican, theologian and mathematician (d. in 1484); Francesco Maurolico (1474-1575), famous mathematician; the humanists Stefano Tuccio (d. in 1596), a Jesuit, and G. A. Viperano, who ended as bishop of Giovinazzo (d. in 1610); scholars and historiographers such as Antonino Amico (v.) and the Jesuit Placido Samperi (1589-1655); the priest Saverio Basile, who prepared the urban plans of M. after the earthquake of 1783; the Cassinese Benedictine B. D. Balsamo (1759-1844), superintendent of Public Instruction in the Kingdom of Sicily, and later archbishop of Monreale.
IV. ABBEYS AND MONASTERIES
First in order of time are the Basilian monasteries, which have a separate history connected with the fortunes of the Greek rite in the territory of M. (v. BASILIANI). Of the Benedictine foundations, particular mention is due to the priory of St. Mary Magdalene of the Valley of Jehoshaphat and the other of St. Mary de Latinis, besides the nunnery of St. Mary de Scalis and de Alto. In 1193 the Cistercians made their entry there, with the foundation of St. Mary of Roccamadore; the Franciscans in 1231; the Dominicans in 1255; the Carmelites around 1235. Subsequently also the Minims of St. Francis of Paola (1507), the Capuchins (1540), the Jesuits (1548).
V. MONUMENTS
The cathedral of M. has once again asserted itself as one of the greatest and most important monuments of Sicily. It is a construction of the early Middle Ages and took its present organic form in 1092. Under the Aragonese it was further enriched with mosaics (apse and pavement) and the marble decoration of the facade in fourteenth-century taste. Repeatedly damaged by the earthquakes of 1638 and 1783, it was almost razed to the ground in 1908, and when it had once again risen from its ruins, it suffered the very grave damage wrought by the bombardments in 1943, which incinerated the fourteenth-century apse mosaics. Noteworthy are the sculptures of the facade, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the highly ornate portal inspired by Gothic forms from beyond the Alps. Another Norman monument (second half of the twelfth century) is the Annunziata dei Catalani, whose decoration recalls characteristics proper to contemporary Apulian and Tuscan churches. Belonging instead to the Swabian period are the churches of S. Maria l'Alemanna (so called because it passed to the Teutonic Order with its adjoining hospital), of S. Francesco and of S. Maria della Scala (Badiazza), the latter outside M. The first, however mutilated, disordered and subsequently rebuilt, remains the only thirteenth-century church in Sicily with completely Gothic elements; the other, S. Francesco, despite its not a few rebuildings, displays its unmistakable characteristics in the interior, clearly Gothic-Provençal; on the exterior in many details it betrays its descent from the Norman cathedral of the city. The ruins of S. Maria della Scala, on the other hand, suggest a style of transition from Byzantine to Romanesque. Outside M. are found: the church of the Salvatore di Rometta, a capital monument for the study of pre-Norman art, erected between the ninth and tenth centuries. In it present-day criticism sees the ultimate evolution of the Roman art of the decadence, rather than a Byzantine monument. Of no lesser interest are the old Basilian churches of S. Maria di Mili, S. Pietro d'Italia, SS. Pietro e Paolo d'Agrò, all of the Norman period, and the last, the work of Girardo Franco (1172). Their stylistic orientation, because of its origins, is linked to Byzantine art, but in forms already established in Calabria. - See plates LVI-LVII.
Bibliography21 works
Patmos (Studi e testi, 68). Vatican City 1938, passim. On the life of the academies: M. Maylender, Storia delle accad. d'Italia, 5 vols., Bologna 1926-30, see index. On art: S. Bottari, Il duomo di M., Messina 1929; id., La genesi dell'archit. siciliana del periodo normanno, in Arch. stor. sicil., 28 (1932), p. 316 ff.; id., Chiese basiliane della Sicilia e della Calabria, Messina 1939. Cf. also: C. Autore, La chiesa bizantina del S. Salvatore in Rometta, in Arch. stor. messinese, new series, 1 (1934), p. 54 ff.; E. Calandra, Breve storia dell'arch. in Sicilia, Bari 1938, pp. 27, 30-44, 49-54.
Mario Scaduto