TARANTO, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Metropolitan see and provincial capital of the homonymous province in southern Italy (Apulia). It has an area of 1,000 sq km with a population of 338,000, of whom 337,000 are Catholics, distributed in 44 parishes served by 153 diocesan priests and 57 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 12 male religious communities and 33 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 416). Its suffragan dioceses are Castellaneta and Oria.
Many are the legends that have grown up around the landing of the Apostle Peter in this place, but there are no ancient documents to support them.
A document from the 11th or 12th century (BHL, 1652-53), like those for other cities such as Gallipoli, Pisa, Pozzuoli, etc., relates that Peter would have arrived here in the year 45 from Antioch and that, upon landing, he would have healed a sick gardener named Amasius, who then became the first bishop of T., while the Evangelist Mark, his traveling companion, would have evangelized an initial nucleus of the population. Now, apart from the doubt that this Amasius actually existed, not only is there no evidence to consider him a bishop, but every element of credibility in the legend itself, which seems certainly much later than the events narrated, is lacking. A second and later legend (the Iter Tarentinum sanctum Petri et Marci: BHL, 6679) changes the name of the first bishop and, instead of Amasius, puts a Cataldo, which modern historians consider no less doubtful. In truth, the latter would be an Irish bishop of Rachau, who came to T. in the 7th century (according to others in the 5th or even the 8th, but no period has secure data) either returning from the Holy Land or about to embark for it, but who died suddenly and was buried in the Cathedral.
The dramatic events of the struggle against the Saracens, culminating in the bloody sack of 927, and the arduous reconstruction of the city favored the creation of the legend. In 1094, amid the ruins of the ancient Cathedral, the body of the Saint was found together with a small golden cross bearing his name inscribed. The fame of the Saint assumed incredible proportions. Miracles and legends then arose and, rapidly spread, brought his cult even to the most distant localities of southern Italy. Thus St. Cataldo became the patron saint of the city and its first bishop.
Setting aside other minor accounts and the difficult problem of origins, it must be noted that even for the first successors who sat on the Tarentine see, Masona and Renovatus mentioned in the catalogue, no document can be considered authoritative for their existence. Thus one must come to the end of the 5th century to find an anonymous bishop documented in a letter of Gelasius I (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 647), in which the Pope announces to the clergy and people the imminent consecration of the new prelate Peter (493), by others erroneously cited under the name of Innocentius. Then for another century no name is known. It is true that mention is made of a Cataldo II—who would always be the well-known saint—but even regarding him, in the absence of sources, there is debate over whether to assign him to the 6th century or later, while it remains to be ascertained whether he was truly a bishop of T. One comes thus to 593, the year in which an Andrea appears (ibid., 1249-50), accused by Gregory the Great of immoral life; followed by: Honorius (603; ibid., 1889)—and not the John cited in a false diploma (ibid., 1366)—who obtained from the same Pope permission to use the baptistery he had built in the church of S. Maria; John, present at the Lateran Council of 649 presided over by Martin I; Gervasius (659); Germanus, who in 680 took part in the Council of Constantinople; and Caesarius, who appears at the Roman Council under St. Zachary (743). From the 8th to the 10th century there are no records. The city, in the grip of terror from the Saracens, despite aid from Venice and the Emperor of the East, suffered the same fate as nearby Oria and was completely devastated. Twenty years later the Hungarians would not dare touch that heap of ruins. With the accession to the throne of Nicephorus Phocas the reconstruction of the city began in a safer location. And its rebirth must have been so rapid that, barely three lustrums later, not only was episcopal authority restored but it was even elevated to the dignity of an archbishopric. In 987 there is already news of the first archbishop, John, who succeeded in obtaining from Pandulf I and Landulf III, princes of Benevento, for the prelate of that city the church of S. Michele Arcangelo on Mount Gargano with the attached castle. The great authority with which the Tarentine archbishop appears invested, certainly favored by the Byzantine monarch, has led some to think that for a certain period the Byzantine rite prevailed in T. But no source, as far as is known, provides any evidence in this regard; indeed everything seems to confirm that the prevailing rite, despite the political situation, was always the Latin one.
After John, the catalogue of the Church is almost complete; it is therefore sufficient to give a brief account of the most notable persons and events. In 1040 Archbishop Alexander Faccipecora had to intervene to settle the dispute of Mottola, arising from the election of the archdeacon; Drogo in 1050 rebuilt the Cathedral, and in 1071 was present at the consecration of the church of Montecassino performed by Alexander II. Walter (1120-25), a Neapolitan, not only received concessions from Constance and Bohemond II, but from Roger, Count of Sicily and by investiture of Pope Honorius Duke of Apulia, was appointed political and military governor of Benevento where he built the basilica of S. Gennaro. Philip (1138), elected by the antipope Anacletus II, was deposed the following year by the Roman Council; retiring as a Cistercian to Clairvaux in France and consecrated by St. Bernard, he was greatly assisted by him with Pope Eugenius to obtain forgiveness, but, though living a holy life, he received only the diaconate. His successor Gerald collected the relics of St. Cataldo in a silver casket and settled the dispute between the archbishop of Brindisi and the Benedictine nuns of that city.
In 1217, at the death of Walter II elected the previous year, the Chapter circumvented pontifical norms in naming a successor, but Honorius III intervened and elected Nicholas (1219), who four years later took part in the consecration of the church of Cosenza and in 1225 granted the Cistercians of S. Maria de Ferraria of Teano permission to found two monasteries in the diocese. Fr. George of Capua in 1301 was the choice of Boniface VIII who, having deposed the two nominees of the Chapter, came to heal a dangerous schism; he was a wise man and advisor first to Charles II, then to Robert and to Philip, Prince of T.
A confused situation arose in the diocese at the death of James of Adria (1378), assassinated by a certain Biagio Torto following—it seems—the exacerbation of the dispute with the Chapter. Urban VI transferred Marino del Giudice there, but he, accused of conspiring against the Pope in favor of the antipope, was deposed, imprisoned and thrown into the sea near Genoa enclosed in a sack. The successor is uncertain; some names are even taken from another see. In 1391 Boniface IX finally elected Belisarius, Benedictine abbot of S. Maria de Gualdo of Benevento. A few years later, T. was governed by three prelates of opposing factions: Matthew or, according to others, Cardinal Francesco De Caris (1408) on the part of Benedict XIII; Rinaldo Brancacci, also a cardinal, on the part of John XXIII, and the legitimate Ludovico Bonito, a Girgentine, elected by Innocent VII (1406). Of the first, who seems to have stripped the Church of Trent of various fiefs, the end is not well known; the second, however, after peace returned to the Church, resigned his dignity to Pope Martin V and died in Naples, where he is buried in the church of S. Angelo a Nido.
Taranto, archdiocese of - Medieval sarcophagus - Taranto.
Many were the cardinals who occupied the see of Taranto. It will suffice to mention Cardinal Latino Orsini of Rome (1472) and his successor Giovanni d’Aragona (1478), son of Ferdinand, King of Naples; another Orsini in 1491 and Raffaele Riario (1504?), nephew of Sixtus IV; Antonio Sanseverino (1528), Marco Antonio Colonna (1560), and, though not a cardinal, the Theatine Tommaso Caracciolo (1637), who died in a reputation for holiness. From 1703, when Cardinal Francesco Pignatelli was transferred to Naples, the see remained vacant for a full ten years because of interference by the Emperor of Austria; only in 1713, after being transferred from Potenza, did Taranto regain its prelate in the person of Giambattista Stella of Modugno.
Numerous were the religious orders in the diocese, whose convents and monasteries largely date from the 13th and 14th centuries; yet older communities were also present, such as those of the Basilian and Benedictine monks who occupied the two islands of the gulf, respectively called San Pietro and San Paolo.
MONUMENTS. – Goths, Byzantines, and Saracens passed through the city, and its monuments were repeatedly targeted by invaders and plunderers; thus only vestiges remain. Such is the case with the Cathedral, which rises in the heart of the old city. Its origins are shrouded in legend, and the dates that have been proposed at various times remain conjectural. It is known that the primitive church was dedicated to Santa Maria del Popolo and that a Saracen raid caused its near-total destruction.
Taranto, archdiocese – Detail of the holy-water stoup in the crypt of the Cathedral – Taranto.
TARANTO, ARCHDIOCESE OF – Detail of the holy-water stoup in the crypt of the Cathedral – Taranto.
After the city’s rebirth, Archbishop Drogone, the Norman kinsman of the Guiscard, began the reconstruction of the temple; following the discovery of the relics of Saint Cataldus in 1071, he dedicated the new church to the saint. Today the original lines have been altered by restorations undertaken in 1569, 1657, 1713, and 1871–73. The entire structure is Romanesque in its iconographic design: three naves with a high transept and dome; the dome, of Lombard-indigenous style, is supported by a large drum adorned with slender colonnettes and hanging arches (forms and motifs found elsewhere: Bari, Trani, Bitonto, Ruvo, etc.); in addition to the apse, notable features include the portal, originally on the north flank but now at the foot of the stairs descending to the crypt; the sixteen marble columns inside, remnants of pagan monuments; two lions of classical style; scant fragments now in the basement of a museum of opus vermiculatum; and the fragments of sculptures, unearthed in 1901, that support ogival arches of interest for the period to which they belong. The Taranto cathedral is undoubtedly connected to the fine churches that Puglian art has left us in the Terra di Bari and the Salento, art that was sensitive to Lombard forms yet still retained certain Byzantine elements visible in the arch of the crossing, destroyed during recent restorations, and especially in the capitals, which vary in shape and size and display that particular manner distinguishing some examples of other basilicas north and south of the Adriatic coast. The other parts of the basilica, with the exception of the truncated bell tower of 1413, bear a modern imprint. Baroque works include the façade, the ceiling, and the baldachin of the high altar, the latter rebuilt in 1652 to replace the previous one (1571), now at the baptismal font. A gem of the church is the chapel of Saint Cataldus to the right of the apse: begun in 1657, it was completed only in the early 19th century. It features rich ornamentation and frescoes depicting the life of the saint (works by P. De Matteis and G. Pagano, 1713–1804); the altar, with the silver bust of the patron saint made by V. Catello in 1892, preserves the relics in splendid marble caskets. In the cathedral treasury are kept two ivory crucifixes, a Gospel book on parchment, various reliquaries, and the pectoral cross of the saint, perhaps from the 7th–8th century. A stone slab, now walled near the bell-tower door, recalls that once the cathedral housed tombs containing the remains of illustrious figures such as Philip II of Anjou and his wife Elizabeth of Hungary, Raimondello Orsini, and others, before they were destroyed during various restoration works.
Among the other churches of Taranto, that of San Domenico deserves mention; founded by Frederick II and donated to the Benedictines, it was dedicated to Saint Peter the Emperor before passing to the Dominicans. Only the façade with its rose window and the fine portal remain intact, while the interior was transformed during the 16th–17th centuries.
Under the same Swabian emperor, the abbey of Santa Maria della Giustizia arose in the vicinity of Taranto, mentioned in a bull of Paschal II in 1113. The church, flanked by a tower, is now in ruins and preserves only its single-gabled façade and two 12th-century doorways, slightly pointed but adorned with Oriental motifs. Still in the vicinity of the city, in the village of Solito, there remains a Basilian crypt called Santa Maria di Muriverete, with surviving frescoes including the Savior and figures of the Virgin and the Baptist; another cenobitic sanctuary is located at “Le Petrose,” and a third crypt, called that of Saint Onuphrius, with numerous fragments of frescoes near the Todisco farmstead. Other hermit caves are scattered throughout the province. – See pl. CXXIV.