MILETO, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the province of Catanzaro. It has a population of 400,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 133 parishes, served by 240 diocesan priests and 47 regulars, a seminary, 10 male religious communities and 42 female (1949).
No memory of it survives either among historians or among ancient geographers; there are no archaeological remains attesting its existence in the Magna Graecia or Roman era.
It must not be forgotten, however, that various seismic disturbances 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 arises and establishes itself in the Norman period, when Count Roger made it the capital of his domain in 1063 and in 1075 transferred there the episcopal see of Vibona, reduced to a heap of ruins by the barbarian invasions. This transfer was confirmed by St. Gregory VII with a bull of 4 February 1081, remembered by the historians of Mileto, as to whose authenticity it is nevertheless permissible to raise doubts, if only because the Pope says in it that he consecrated the first bishop Arnolfo and wills that his successors be immediately subject to the Holy See, whereas in another bull of the same year he declares that he does not wish to derogate from the metropolitan rights of Reggio, referring the matter to the arbitration of a delegate of his, of the archbishop of Bari and of the bishop of Fermo. The see of M., however, proves to have been immediately subject to the Holy See from its origins. The same Count Roger, after 1081 and before 1090, increased its territory, annexing to it the diocese of Tauriano, reduced to the same condition as that of Vibona. In this way M., in extent and in inhabitants, holds the primacy in Calabria. Its founder at once enriched it with a magnificent cathedral, in which the columns of the old Greek temple of Vibona were used; in it his mortal remains rested for centuries together with those of his second wife. The sarcophagus, however, is currently in Naples. There was also the Benedictine abbey of the Most Holy Trinity, invested with episcopal jurisdiction, which in wealth and power surpassed every other in the region.
Although M. is the first Latin episcopate founded by the Normans in Calabria, nevertheless the vast territory preserved for centuries a Byzantine imprint, on account of the many Greek monasteries that flourished there, among which mention should be made of that of Sts. Elias and Philaretus, on Mount St. Elias, between Palmi and Seminara, which preserved the body of St. Philaretus, a Calabrian-Greek ascetic of the 11th century; of St. Elias of Galatro, which had a distinguished relic of St. Elias Speleota; of St. Mary of Rovito near Rosarno; of St. Onuphrius of Cao, near Vibo Valentia; of St. Peter Spina and of St. Lawrence, near Arena; of St. Elias of Melicuccà; of St. George Morgeto; of St. Constantine of Briatico; of St. Euphemia of Aspromonte and of St. Bartholomew of Trigonio, near Sinopoli, founded by St. Bartholomew of Simeri, to whom is also due the foundation of the Patirion of Rossano and of St. Saviour of Messina. Of the Latin foundations, besides the abbey of the Most Holy Trinity, mention should be made of the very many Franciscan, Augustinian, Minims' and Jesuits' convents, scattered somewhat everywhere in the diocese and above all the convents of St. George Morgeto and of St. Dominic of Soriano, of the Friars Preachers, the last of which was a most celebrated sanctuary, which attracted 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 even today maintain a flourishing college there. Other sanctuaries of the diocese are those of the Madonna of Vallelunga, of the Madonna of the Poor of Seminara and of St. Elias, near Palmi.
The diocese of M. is honored by the Calabrian-Greek saints Onuphrius and Helen, his sister; Fantinus of Tauriano; Leoluca of Corleone, whose relics are venerated at Vibo Valentia; Luke of Melicuccà, bishop of Isola, etc., and, among the Latins, the Benedictine Bl. Randisio of Borrello, the Bl. Paul of M. Dominican, the Bl. Paul of Sinopoli, who was one of the architects of the Observance. Among ecclesiastics, there shone for works and for doctrine: the cardinals Filippo Spinelli of Seminara, Francesco Maria Pignatelli of Rosarno and Luigi Ruffo-Scilla of St. Onuphrius; 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 as 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 them is associated the count
Vito Capialbi of Vibo Valentia, who in the last century brought the most notable historical and documentary contribution to the ecclesiastical vicissitudes of Calabria.
Among the more recent prelates, distinct remembrance is due to V. M. Armentano, F. Mincione, G. Morabito and P. Albera, particularly deserving for the measures in favor of the entire diocese and of the seminary, after the destructions of the earthquake of 1908.