It has a population of 80,000, all Catholic, distributed across 34 parishes served by 49 diocesan priests and 5 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 2 male religious communities, and 12 female ones (Annuarium Pontificium 1952, p. 342).
Of little importance in Roman times, it became highly significant during the Byzantine domination, when it was made the center of resistance against Saracen invasions and chosen as the seat of the governor of the Duchy of Calabria. It reached its zenith in the 10th century, during the time of St. Nilus, and in the 11th, shortly before the advent of the Normans. Under these new rulers, the center was first moved to S. Marco Argentano, then to Mileto, and finally to Palermo, after which Rossano lost its strategic importance and declined.
It is to be excluded that the episcopal see is of apostolic origin, nor can the claims of those who wish the church of S. Michele Arcangelo of Codigno to have been consecrated by Bishop John in 350 be accepted. In reality, Rossano succeeded Thurii when that city was destroyed by the Saracens or Lombards toward the end of the 7th century. Indeed, the last bishop of Thurii is the Theophanes who appears in the synod of Pope Agatho in 679.
Therefore, Rossano is undoubtedly of Byzantine foundation, and its origins can be traced to the first half of the 8th century. It should be noted, however, that in the Greek Diatiposis it does not appear in Notitia I, but only in III and X, which date to the time of Leo VI the Wise, i.e., the early 10th century. In these Notitiae, Rossano appears as a suffragan of Reggio, which was the metropolitan see of the Eparchy of Calabria. The title of archbishop, assumed by Romanus, presiding prelate of Rossano, first appears at the foot of a Greek document of 1088, and not in 1091, as erroneously believed by Minasi and Fabre. It should be noted, however, that the title was already in use by the 10th century, as evidenced by the Life of St. Nilus, who was sought as archbishop of Rossano around 970. Nevertheless, Rossano was never a metropolitan see, and the repeated requests to have the Diocese of Cariati, formed from part of its territory in 1438, as its suffragan were never granted by the Holy See. The territory of the Diocese of Rossano underwent a second reduction when, in 1919, the Diocese of Lungro was established, which took from it the Albanian-origin towns, including S. Demetrio Corone, the intellectual and historical center of the Italo-Albanians. However, Spezzano Albanese, which had adopted and still maintains the Latin rite, remained part of Rossano.
The Greek rite, which had taken hold in Rossano from its origins, persisted until 1640, when it was replaced by the Latin rite through the efforts of Archbishop Matteo Saraceni. An earlier attempt at replacement by Count Roger met with such opposition from the people of Rossano that he deemed it prudent to desist. The Greek rite was sustained by Basilian monks, who had established themselves in the numerous Greek monasteries of the diocese, seven of which were located in Rossano itself. Among these monasteries, particular mention should be made of the two most famous: S. Adriano, near S. Demetrio Corone, founded by St. Nilus in 950 and studied by Gay, and that of S. Maria Nuova Odigitria or del Patrìon, founded between Rossano and Corigliano around 1100 by St. Bartholomew of Simeri, which became an important center of Byzantine civilization in the West throughout the Middle Ages. It was studied by P. Batiffol, who wrote a splendid monograph on it and affirmed that the Patrìon is to Greek humanism what Bobbio is to Latin humanism.
Among the Latin abbeys, mention should be made of the Benedictine abbey of S. Maria di Camigliano near Tarsia, the flourishing abbey of S. Angelo Militino, and the Cistercian abbey of S. Maria de ligno Crucis between Corigliano and Acri. The mendicant orders established themselves in more recent times: the Augustinians at Tarsia, the Observant Franciscans at Rossano, the Minims and Capuchins at Rossano and Corigliano.
Among the men who have honored Rossano and its diocese, particular mention should be made of the Basilian saints: St. Nilus, the most illustrious representative of Italo-Greek culture; St. Bartholomew, hagiographer, hymnographer, melodist, and legislator, the last great representative of Italo-Greek hymnography; the Blesseds George, Stephen, Paul, Luke, and Nilus II, who combined holiness with a love of learning; John Panaretus, the greatest representative of the Italo-Greek calligraphic school; Theophanes Kerameus, to whom we owe the most extensive collection of Greek homilies in the Middle Ages; John Philagathus, advisor to Otto II and Otto III, abbot of Nonantola, archbishop of Piacenza, and finally antipope under the name John XVI. All of these were from Rossano, to which tradition also assigns the two popes St. Zosimus and John VII.
In the Latin sphere, mention should be made of the Blessed Marino, of the Third Order of St. Francis, and Silvestro Di Franco, a Capuchin who was an eminent preacher, procurator general, and highly esteemed ascetical writer. Outside Rossano, mention should be made of Fr. Matteo Persiano, Fr. Francesco Longo, a prolific theological and canon law writer of the Capuchins, and Fr. Tommaso Puglisi, an eminent Carmelite historian, all from Corigliano; and the Venerable Fiorentino da Longobucco, companion of St. Francis of Paola.
Among its prelates, noteworthy besides Theophanes Kerameus and Matteo Saraceni already mentioned, are Vincenzo Pampinella, who held many diplomatic posts for the Holy See; Cardinals Francesco Colonna, Girolamo Verallo, and Gian Battista Castagna, who later became Pope Urban VII; Cardinal Lucio Sanseverino, who held a synod in 1594; Andrea Adeodati of the Benedictines, Francesco Maria Muscettola of the Theatines, and finally Orazio Mazzella, an eminent theologian who later became archbishop of Taranto.
Francesco Russo
THE PURPLE EVANGELARY OF ROSSANO. - Justly famous, even more so than the manuscripts of the Patrìon, is the Evangelary of the Chapter of Rossano, a 6th-century Greek codex on thin purple-dyed vellum, measuring 260 x 307 mm, richly illuminated and written in two columns in fine uncial script with broad silver letters (gold for titles and the first lines of each book).
Originally it contained all four Gospels. At present it consists of 188 folios, modernly numbered in black ink on the recto and verso, and includes Matthew, Mark up to 16:14; it reveals transpositions and mutilations at the beginning and end, the latter due to a fire, as evidenced by burn marks on the outermost folios.
Its discovery is attributed to O. von Gebhardt and A. Harnack, who saw it in 1879 in the Chapter of Rossano, but as early as 1845 the Italian journalist C. Malpica had already reported on it; nor can the manuscript have remained hidden for long, since it was probably still in use in the 15th century (when the Latin rite replaced the Greek in the territory of Rossano), and the current binding, subsequent to the aforementioned losses, cannot date back earlier than the 17th-18th century.
Cosimo Rosselli
The miniatures clearly reveal their Eastern origin, from Asia Minor: whether specifically from Cappadocia, as some maintain, cannot be proven. The stylistic elements and iconographic characteristics suggest a connection with the Vienna Genesis (cod. Vin-)
ROSSELLI, COSIMO. - Painter, b. in Florence in 1439, d. there on 7 Jan. 1507. Having begun his artistic training as a youth in the workshop of Neri di Bicci, he remained always attached to the teachings of his mediocre master, despite the successive influences of other artists such as Gozzoli, Pollaiolo, Perugino and, in his later years, Filippino Lippi.
The lack of elegance in the figures, of unity and coherence in the compositions, and of precision in the drawing of his early works, still under the direct impression of Neri di Bicci (Annunciation in the Louvre, 1473; St. Barbara in the Uffizi; Stories of St. Philip Benizi in the cloister of the Annunziata in Florence, 1475), reappears in the Crossing of the Red Sea and in the Adoration of the Golden Calf, frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (1481-82), while in the Sermon on the Mount (there), the landscape, under the influence of the artists working around him, has a greater breadth and, through the intervention of his pupil Piero di Cosimo, some figures move with an elegant rhythm of almost Botticellian flavor. But in the Last Supper, neither the memory of Andrea del Castagno and Ghirlandaio, nor the proximity of Perugino, suffice to give unity and coherence to the scene.
Nevertheless, the Roman lesson was not in vain: in the works that follow, upon his return to Florence, one finds greater solidity, a more correct drawing, and notable efforts at individuation. Indeed, it is from this period that his best portraits date, and in the paintings executed in S. Ambrogio in Florence (1488-1501), the fresco of the Procession of the Sacrament and the Madonna in Glory, a certain stylistic unity and dignity in representation is achieved, already tending toward the broader and more monumental forms, of a Cinquecento character, seen in the Incorporation of Mary (1505) in S. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, also in Florence. Other works are found in the Uffizi and in various Italian and foreign museums.