SAN MARCO ARGENTANO and BISIGNANO, DIOCESE OF
A city and diocese in the province of Cosenza (Calabria), dependent on the metropolitan see of Catanzaro. The population is 145,000, almost all Catholic, distributed across 72 parishes served by 97 diocesan priests and 20 regular clergy; it has 4 male and 15 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 357).
It is a legend that the city of S. M. in the Val di Crati near Cosenza welcomed the refugees from Sybaris; less questionable is its status as heir to the ancient Argentanum; without foundation is the assertion of old regional historians that it received the faith from St. Mark the Evangelist, from whom it would have inherited its name. There is, however, some basis for the existence and martyrdom of the Argentanian saints Senatore, Cassiodoro, Viatore, and their mother Dominata, whose relics were venerated in the Cathedral, from where some were later transferred to the church of the Most Holy Trinity in Venosa. Delchaye, followed by Lanzoni, considers this a legend stemming from the inscription on Cassiodoro’s sarcophagus. In reality, S. M. enters history around 1060, when Robert Guiscard made it the center of his raids in the Val di Crati. He himself established the episcopal see around 1080 and obtained papal confirmation. It is therefore to be excluded that it is the heir of Tempas, whose memory fades by the end of the 8th century, Malvito (v.), which continued to exist until the mid-13th century. It is true, however, that when this diocese was suppressed, its territory was absorbed by S. M.
In the diocese stood the two powerful Benedictine abbeys of Cetraro, given to Montecassino by Sichelgaita in 1086, and S. Maria de Matina, founded by the same Sichelgaita in 1066 and later passed to the Cistercians in 1185. At S. Sosti was the monastery of S. Ciriaco, and in the mountains the sanctuary of the Madonna del Pettoruto, which seems to be of Basilian origin. In the city there were convents of the Franciscans, the Minims, and the Capuchins, who also had houses in Cetraro, Belvedere, and other places.
Among the men distinguished for virtue, in addition to the aforementioned martyrs of Argentanum, deserve mention: St. Ciriaco of Buonvicino, a Basilian ascetic of the 11th-12th centuries; St. Daniele of Belvedere, a Franciscan who died a martyr in Ceuta in 1227 at the head of a group of six other Calabrian Franciscans; Albensio Rossi of Cetraro, a hermit of the 17th century, whose memory lives on in Rome in the musical edicule of Porta Angelica; Anselmo of S. M., a Capuchin; Matteo of Cetraro, a Reformed Franciscan, etc. Among the distinguished prelates of this see are: Tommaso (1321-48), formerly Cistercian abbot of S. Maria de Matina; Goffredo de Castro (1473-84), who was entrusted by Sixtus IV with conducting an investigation into St. Francis of Paola with a view to the apostolic confirmation of his Order; Rutilio Zeno (1484-1513) and Luigi de Amato (1513-18), humanists; Coriolano Martirano of Cosenza (1530-51), a poet who took part in the Council of Trent; Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto (1566-69), one of the most distinguished cardinals of the 16th century; Matteo Guerra of Cosenza (1576-78), who distinguished himself at the Council of Trent; Reginaldo Coppola d’Altonorte, a Dominican (1797-1810).
In 1818 Pope Pius VII united S. M. *aequo principali* with Bisignano; since then the bishop has resided six months of the year in each of the dioceses.