SAN MARCO ARGENTANO E BISIGNANO, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in the province of Cosenza (Calabria), dependent on the metropolitan see of Catanzaro. The population is 145,000 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, distributed among 72 parishes served by 97 diocesan priests and 20 regulars; it has 4 male religious communities and 15 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 357).
It is a legend that the city of S. M. in the Val di Crati near Cosenza received the refugees of Sybaris; it is less debatable that it is the heir of the ancient "Argentanum"; the assertion of the old regional historians that it received the faith from the evangelist St. Mark, from whom it would have inherited its name, is without foundation; there is, on the other hand, some foundation regarding the existence and martyrdom of the holy Argentan martyrs Senator, Cassiodorus, Viator and their mother Dominata, whose relics were venerated in the Cathedral, from where they were in part transported to the church of the Most Holy Trinity of Venosa. Delehaye, followed by Lanzoni, holds that this is a legend originating from the inscription on the sarcophagus of Cassiodorus. 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 erected the episcopal see there around 1080 and obtained its confirmation from the Pope. It is therefore to be excluded that it is the heir of Tempas, whose records are lost at the end of the 8th century, or of Malvito (v.), which continued to exist until the middle of the 13th century. It is true, however, that when this diocese was suppressed, its territory was absorbed by S. M.
In the diocese there arose the two very powerful Benedictine abbeys of Cetraro, given to Montecassino by Sicelgaita in 1086, and S. Maria de Matina, founded by Sicelgaita herself 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 then the convents of the Franciscans, the Minims and the Capuchins, who also had houses at Cetraro, at Belvedere and in other places.
Among the men who distinguished themselves for virtue, besides the aforementioned Argentan martyrs, worthy of mention are: St. Ciriaco of Buonvicino, a Basilian ascetic of the 11th-12th centuries; St. Daniel of Belvedere, a Franciscan, who died a martyr at Ceuta in 1227 at the head of a band of six other Calabrian Franciscans; Albensio Rossi of Cetraro, a hermit of the 17th century, whose memory is kept alive in Rome in the mosaic aedicule of Porta Angelica; Anselmo of S. M., a Capuchin; Matteo of Cetraro, a reformed friar, etc. Among the distinguished prelates of this see are remembered: Tommaso (1321-48), formerly Cistercian abbot of S. Maria de Matina; Goffredo de Castro (1473-84), who received from Sixtus IV the task of conducting an inquiry 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 of Altomonte, a Dominican (1797-1810).
In 1818 Pope Pius VII united S. M. aequae principaliter to Bisignano; since then the bishop resides six months of the year in each of the dioceses.
Bibliography12 works
Francesco Russo