MILETO, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese in the province of Catanzaro. It has a population of 400,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed across 133 parishes, served by 240 diocesan priests and 47 religious, one seminary, 10 male religious communities and 42 female ones (1949).
No memory of it recurs among ancient historians or geographers; there are no archaeological remains attesting to its existence in the Magna Graecia or Roman eras.
It must not, however, be forgotten that various seismic disturbances have entirely destroyed it, so that the present city stands more than 2 km from the ancient one, razed to the ground by the earthquake of 1783. Its history begins and asserts itself in the Norman period, when Count Roger made it the capital of his county in 1063 and in 1075 transferred the episcopal see from Vibona to Mileto, which had been reduced to a heap of ruins by barbarian invasions. This transfer was confirmed by St Gregory VII in a bull dated 4 February 1081, cited by Miletian historians, though doubts may legitimately be raised about its authenticity, if only because the Pope says he consecrated the first bishop, Arnold, and wishes his successors to be immediately subject to the Holy See, whereas in another bull of the same year he declares he does not wish to derogate from the metropolitan rights of Reggio, submitting the matter to the arbitration of his delegate, the archbishop of Bari and the bishop of Fermo. The see of Mileto, however, appears to have been immediately subject to the Holy See from its origins. The same Count Roger, after 1081 and before 1090, enlarged its territory by incorporating the diocese of Tauriano, which was in the same condition as that of Vibona. In this way Mileto, in terms of extent and population, held primacy in Calabria.
Its founder also built a magnificent cathedral, in which were reused the columns of the old Greek temple of Vibona; in it for centuries rested his mortal remains together with those of his second wife. The sarcophagus is now in Naples. He also founded the Benedictine abbey of the Most Holy Trinity, invested with episcopal jurisdiction, which surpassed all others in the region in wealth and power.
Although Mileto was the first Latin bishopric founded by the Normans in Calabria, for centuries the vast territory retained a Byzantine imprint, due to the many Greek monasteries that flourished there, among which should be mentioned that of SS. Elias and Philaretus on Monte S. Elia, between Palmi and Seminara, which preserved the body of St Philaretus, a Calabrian-Greek ascetic of the 11th century; St Elias of Galatro, which possessed a notable relic of St Elias the Cave-dweller; St Mary of Rovito near Rosarno; St Onuphrius of the Cao, near Vibo Valentia; St Peter of Spina and St Lawrence, near Arena; St Elias of Melicuccà; St George of Morgeto; St Constantine of Briatico; St Euphemia of Aspromonte and St Bartholomew of Trigonio, near Sinopoli, founded by St Bartholomew of Simeri, to whom is also owed the foundation of the monastery of Rossano and of St Salvator of Messina. Among Latin foundations, besides the abbey of the Most Holy Trinity, are to be remembered the very many Franciscan, Augustinian, Minim and Jesuit convents scattered throughout the diocese, and especially the convents of St George of Morgeto and St Dominic of Soriano, of the Friars Preachers, the latter of which was a most celebrated sanctuary, attracting pilgrims even from France and Spain, and whose immense buildings, with four cloisters, housed about 200 friars. The earthquake of 1783 destroyed it; but the religious still maintain a flourishing college there today. Other shrines in the diocese are those of Our Lady of Vallelunga, Our Lady of the Poor of Seminara and St Elias, near Palmi.
The diocese of Mileto is honoured by the Calabrian-Greek saints Onuphrius and Helena, his sister; Fantinus of Tauriano; Leoluca of Corleone, whose relics are venerated in Vibo Valentia; Luke of Melicuccà, bishop of Isola, etc., and among the Latins, the blessed Randisius of Borrello, a Benedictine; the blessed Paul of Mileto, a Dominican; the blessed Paul of Sinopoli, who was one of the architects of the Observance. Among ecclesiastics who shone for their works and learning were Cardinals Filippo Spinelli of Seminara, Francesco Maria Pignatelli of Rosarno and Luigi Ruffo-Scilla of S. Onofrio; the monk Barlaam of Seminara, the greatest controversialist of the 14th century, and Leontius Pilatus, teacher of Boccaccio; the priest Gabriele Barrio of France, considered the Herodotus of Calabria; the Franciscan Girolamo Marafioti of Polistena and the priest Giuseppe Gatti of Vibo Valentia, regional historians; Andrea Serrao of Castelmonardo, bishop of Potenza, murdered, and the canonist Domenico Cavallari of Garopoli, both of Jansenist tendencies; Msgr. Domenico Taccone-Gallucci, bishop of Nicotera and Tropea. To these is joined Count Vito Capialbi of Vibo Valentia, who in the last century made the most notable historical and documentary contribution to the ecclesiastical history of Calabria.
Among more recent prelates, special mention should be made of V. M. Armentano, F. Mincione, G. Morabito and P. Albera, particularly distinguished for their measures in favour of the entire diocese and the seminary after the destructions caused by the earthquake of 1908.
Francesco Russo
MILITARISM. — Militarism may be defined as the stable, current disposition of a State toward war, with the simultaneous decisive influence of military organization on the direction of the State itself. Its foundation is not in the immediate threat of a foreign State or in the necessity of a defensive war imposed by present dangers that jeopardize the State’s security, but in the principle that peace can be secured only when a State is in a state of war. From this it follows that militarism is nothing other than a political philosophy that regards social conflict as inevitable and peace as something unattainable and sporadic. The principle that only force can resolve political disputes spurs nations to an arms race: if one State is dominated by the principle of militarism, then other States, to ensure their own security, are driven to secure armaments capable of matching the other’s growth in scale. Such a bellicose dynamic will reverberate in national and international life. The history of Europe, from the 17th century—when standing armies were introduced—records the sad consequences of militarism, which led to the two great world wars of 1914 and 1939. Even in ancient Sparta and Rome, the principles of militarism are found, but its full development occurred only in modern times, with even more deleterious consequences for the system of warfare, which mobilizes the entire vitality of the nation and not merely the armies.
Militarism—especially the Prussian and Hitlerian varieties—never succeeded in resolving political disputes but only lulled them to sleep under the aegis of force: this failure is to be sought in the root of militarism, which is nothing other than unbridled nationalism, which does not hasten but divides peoples, shutting them up selfishly within their own territory.
Modern militarism regards the constant arming for war as the centre of gravity of State life, to which it sacrifices the best energies of the nation and inevitably leads to State centralism in
Directing all the energies of the nation toward maximum military production. Consequently, there is a constant influence in the direction of the state: enormous increase in taxes to cover the high state budgets, which demand continual sacrifices from the nation with a slowdown in material well-being; expansion of military industries and of studies and research that promote the progress of military science; general obligation of military service; aspiration toward national economic autarky. Even education does not remain exempt from the influence of militarism, which seeks to make of the citizen a valiant soldier, with the consequent glorification of war as indispensable. In this way militarism becomes an integral part of state coexistence, perverting: the end of society, which is confined to a permanent disposition for war and education for war; the high military virtues that are exalted in function of militarism and not in relation to the end of society itself; the institution of the state itself, which gives greater weight to the military system than to the needs and exigencies of peoples.
The system contrary to this doctrine is antimilitarism, which can be divided into two classes: to the first belong those who promote the general disarmament of all nations as the sole remedy for safeguarding peace; in the second class are those who, while not condemning the thesis of disarmament, see its impossible realization, and therefore maintain that nations must arm themselves only for possible aggression. Arms must not be the instrument of state policy or impede the material progress of peoples: peace in social coexistence is not achieved by material force, but by mutual understanding and the distribution of wealth and labor.