SANTORINO (TIERA), DIOCESE of. — Bishopric of the island of the same name in the Aegean Sea, founded as early as the 4th century. After the occupation of S. by the Latins in the 13th century, the Greek bishopric ceased to exist (1566), and the Latin one, which still exists today (a suffragan of Naxos), was founded alongside the Greek metropolitan see. The Catholics numbered 700 in 1624, with 4 parishes and the Dominican monastery founded toward the end of the 16th century, but today their number has greatly diminished; in 1951 they numbered 186 out of 10,850 inhabitants; there were 11 churches, 1 parish, 1 men’s congregation and 2 women’s congregations (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 368).
BIBL.: P. Zeelentis, Ἀρχιεπίσκοποι Συντορήνης, Ermupolis (Sira) 1923; G. Hofmann, Vescovati cattolici della Grecia, V: Thera (Santorini), in Orientalia christiana analecta, no. 130, Roma 1941. Giorgio Hofmann