Strongoli

STRONGOLI. - It was one of the five tiny dioceses on the Ionian side of Calabria, established by the Byzantines around the middle of the 9th century, for the metropolis of S. Severina, created from scratch together with its suffragan sees.

It seems that S. is the heir of Petilia Policastro, and therefore it is more than likely that it can be identified with Paleocastro, which appears in Notitia III of the Diatiposis of Leo VI the Philosopher (886-901). It appears under the name of S. only in Latin sources and at a not-too-ancient period. It is in fact doubtful whether Bishop Cerentino, who subscribed to the Lateran Council of 1179, belonged to this see. Among its successors worthy of note are: Pietro (1254-82), formerly abbot of S. Eufemia, who appears frequently in the Register of Alexander IV; Pietro Vicedomini (1330-1338), also a Benedictine, whose election was confirmed by John XXII, despite the opposition of the metropolitan; the Franciscan Tommaso De Rose (1342-51), a man of great learning; Cardinal Girolamo Grimaldi (1534-35), Tommaso Orsini (1566-67) and above all the Dominican Timoteo Giustiniani (1568-71), who called his confreres to the city.

The diocese of S., very small and mountainous, had no possibility whatsoever of development. In 1818 Pius VII suppressed it, annexing its territory to that of Cerenzia-Cariati, which remained the sole suffragan of S. Severina.

Francesco Russo