SIRA, DIOCESI of. - A Latin bishopric of the island of the same name since 1207. Until the Greek War of Independence (1821–29), it encompassed almost the entire population of the island; but after the immigration, especially of refugees in the year of the Chios catastrophe (1822), and of others in the third decade of the following century, Catholicism lost its predominance, so that the “Orthodox” are now 27,000 and the Catholics only 11,000; the latter, however, have made an excellent contribution during the history of recent centuries to the development of Catholicism in the Catholic archbishopric of Athens.
Indeed, the first apostolic delegate of Greece was the bishop of S., Luigi Maria Blancis, O.F.M. A hero of the faith was one of his predecessors: Andrea Carga, O.P., strangled on 17 Oct. 1617 by the Turks, for the Catholic faith, in the port of S. The “Orthodox” have had a metropolitan residing at S. since 1833.