SMIRNE. — Ancient city of Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey. It is one of the seven Churches of Asia mentioned in the Apocalypse, where the letter of s. Giovanni to the bishop of S. appears (2:8–11).
ELISABETTA (v.), bishop of Antioch, passed through it on his journey to Rome and was greeted there by representatives of the communities of Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles; he addressed one letter to his friend Policarpo, bishop of S., and another to his Church. POLICARPO, SANTO (v.) was immolated in the amphitheatre at the age of 86. The Church of S. recounts in its celebrated letter the intrepid fortitude of Policarpo’s companions amid the tortures (cf. Martyrium Polycarp). Pionio (v.) was also a martyr of S.; he is commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on 10 and 12 March, depending on the Passio (BHG, 2nd ed., no. 1546; H. Delehaye, Les passions des martyrs et les genres littér., Bruxelles 1921, pp. 28–53), as are the Greek synaxaries, which indicate him on 11 March (id., Synaxarium Eccl. Constantinop., col. 530). Policarpe of Ephesus reports that Trasea, bishop of Eumenia, was martyred at S. (Eusebio, Hist. eccl., V, 18, 14; 24, 4). At S., the Hieronymian Martyrology commemorates Bishop Valerio on 22 January.
Archaeological explorations have made it possible to identify primitive S. on the hill of Hacimutsos, 8 km from the present city, which occupies the same site as the Hellenistic city. Around 60 B.C. it became part of the Roman province of Asia; under Adriano it assumed the name Adriane. An earthquake destroyed it in A.D. 178, and Elio Aristide promoted its reconstruction. The Byzantines ruled there until 1071, when it was conquered by Sulajmân ibn Qutejmâ. After his death, S. became independent until 1097, when the Byzantines reconquered II. By the Treaty of Nymphaeum of 13 March 1261, between the emperor of Nicaea, Michele Paleologo, and Genoa, S. became a Genoese possession until around 1330, when it was occupied by the Turks. The latter were expelled in 1344 by the Crusaders, and the city was governed by the Genoese and by the Knights of S. Giovanni or of Rhodes until its conquest by Timûr in 1402 and its Turkish reconquest by Murâd II in 1425. In 1920 S. was occupied by the Greeks, who were forced to abandon it to Turkey in 1922.
Some bishops of S. who took part in councils are known, such as Eutichio at the Council of Nicaea in 325, Idduas at Ephesus in 431, and Aiterico at Chalcedon in 451. Courageous was the attitude of Metropolitan Metrofane against Fozio.
Between 1261 and 1320, a Catholic church is mentioned twice as being in use by the Genoese. During the period 1344–1417, two churches were erected, one dedicated to s. Francesco and the other to s. Antonio of Padua; and a letter of Pope Gregorio XI from 1373 mentions the churches of S. Marco and S. Giorgio. During this period S. had Latin archbishops (Eubel, I, p. 456), the best known of whom is Paolo, who became Latin patriarch of Constantinople; in 1595 it was C. G. Madruzzi, later a cardinal. With the Turkish reconquest, S. became a titular see
until 1624, when the archdiocese was re-established; but the apostolate had already been continued by the Franciscans, who had the only Catholic church. The S. Congregation of Propaganda approved the new Jesuit sees in 1624 (p. De Camillac and fr. G. Collaro of Tinos) and those of the Capuchins in 1634; in 1627 the latter had been entrusted with a new parish in S. for the French Catholics. A third Catholic church was founded in 1630 by the Jesuits, who established a school much attended by Greeks and Armenians. During the war between Venice and the Turks (1645–69), the latter confiscated the convent and alienated the Franciscan church, which they rebuilt in 1692. In 1659 an apostolic vicariate was erected, and its first vicar was L. Macripodari (1659–89). The Church of S. grew considerably in the 18th century; in 1743 the Armenian metropolitan Sergio converted to Catholicism; the Dominicans also settled in S., and the Franciscans founded a hospital. The French Catholics had their parish of S. Policarpo, while the others had that of the Immaculate Conception. A fire ravaged the sacred buildings in 1773. The Lazarists succeeded the Jesuits in 1783. King Luigi XVI had the Capuchin church rebuilt. A new parish entrusted to the Franciscans was erected in 1790 in the village of Burnabat (Burnowa). In 1818 Pope Pio VII restored the archdiocese, elevating the apostolic vicar L. Cardelli, a Franciscan, to the rank of archbishop (1818–32). In the 19th century the Church of S. became increasingly flourishing, with the arrival of new religious Orders (the Mechitarists of Vienne, the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Salesians, the Assumptionists, and various congregations of women religious).
At S. on 13 June 1869, an Eastern Catholic Council was celebrated. On 14 June 1874, the cathedral and parish church of S. Giovanni Battista was consecrated by Archbishop V. Spaccapietra. The religious houses suffered destruction during the Greco-Turkish wars of 1922, and from that time the Catholics steadily declined. The apostolic vicariate of Asia Minor, with the missions of Konia and Scalanuova, is united to the archbishopric.